DHAKA: St John’s, Antigua and Barbuda: Defending champions the West Indies on Saturday announced a provisional 30-man squad for the ICC World Twenty20, which will take place in Bangladesh in March and April.
The Windies, who won the 2012 title with victory against hosts Sri Lanka in the final, will play all of their preliminary round matches at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur.
Their campaign begins against India on March 23 and two days later they take on one of the ICC qualifiers.
Their third match will be against Australia on March 28 followed by a clash against Pakistan on April 1.
The semi-finals are slated for April 3 and 4, with the final on April 6.
Meanwhile, Dwayne Bravo and Chris Gayle have decided to accept retainer contracts with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) after years of refusing it.
The move by Gayle and Bravo represents a turnaround from their decision not to accept retainer contracts in 2010 while a third player who did not sign that same year, Kieron Pollard, is still not on the list of players retained.
Gayle, West Indies captain at the time, refused to sign in 2010 when Ernest Hilaire was WICB’s CEO and was replaced by Darren Sammy later that year.
The new WICB CEO Michael Muirhead says Gayle and Bravo’s willingness to enter into contracts with the WICB at this time speaks for itself.
“I would like to believe it was a re-commitment to West Indies cricket from both of them (Dwayne Bravo and Chris Gayle). They were advised that they were being awarded contracts and they accepted,” said new WICB CEO Michael Muirhead Friday.
“So it augurs well for West Indies cricket and we really did not have to go into negotiations or anything, so it means that they are re-committed to West Indies cricket and the fact they are presenting themselves, making themselves available at the expense of the other leagues speaks for itself so I am happy about that.”
Off-spinner Sunil Narine, who had once opted out of a contract, is now on the list which also includes prolific Test batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
PROBABLES
Provisional West Indies squad:
Christopher Barnwell, Sulieman Benn, Tino Best, Samuel Badree, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Johnson Charles, Kevon Cooper, Sheldon Cottrell, Fidel Edwards, Rayad Emrit, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Jason Holder, Delorn Johnson, Nikita Miller, Sunil Narine, Ashley Nurse, Veerasammy Permaul, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Darren Sammy Marlon Samuels, Krishmar Santokie, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith, Chadwick Walton.
Source: Gulfnews.com
BDST: 1333 HRS, JAN 19, 2014
RS
