Off-spinner Banks in, Gayle out again

GEORGETOWN: Off-spinner Omari Banks yesterday became the first player from the tiny Leeward Island of Anguilla to be selected to the senior West Indies cricket team.

The 20-year-old Banks and Ramnaresh Sarwan of Guyana are included in a 15-man squad to face Australia in the Second Test, which starts in Trinidad on Saturday. Sarwan, who was nominated vice-captain, has fully recovered from a fractured middle finger on his left hand. The 22-year-old had a final workout on the Bourda pitch on Sunday following Australia’s nine-wicket victory in the first of four Tests. Banks is included as the only specialist spinner. The 13 players who were selected for the First Test remain on the squad although wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs is likely to miss out after tearing a muscle in his groin during the West Indies loss. He will get a second opinion on the severity of the injury once the squad arrives in Trinidad today.

The squad: Brian Lara (captain), Ramnaresh Sarwan (vice-captain), Wavell Hinds, Devon Smith, Daren Ganga, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Marlon Samuels, Ridley Jacobs, Carlton Baugh, David Bernard, Omari Banks, Vasbert Drakes, Mervyn Dillon, Pedro Collins, Jermaine Lawson. Coach: Gus Logie. Manager: Ricky Skerritt. (AP)