The West Indies Cricket Board has named a 30 man squad in preparation for the Cricket World Cup in March. By and large, the usual suspects are all there with no shocking exclusions. The one surprise has to be the inclusion of Rawl Lewis. With Omari Banks and Dave Mohammed firmly established ahead of him, and with Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels both used regularly as spin options, it becomes difficult to justify this selection. Keep in mind, this is the man who sports a bowling average of 48.28 in 20 one day matches. This is also the spinner with a miniscule economy rate of 5.19. Given that Lewis is a spring chicken at the tender age of 32, one can only assume that the selectors need someone to captain one of the sides during split squad matches.
Pedro Collins has to consider himself unfortunate to have missed out on a nod, considering that not too long ago he was the established left arm seamer in the starting eleven. That being said, the selectors most likely feel that there is only room for one lefty quick in the side, and that spot is deservingly given to Ian Bradshaw.
When all is said and done, there isn't much room for peripheral players to play their way into the starting eleven. The likes of Lara, Sarwan, Bravo, Chanderpaul, Gayle, Ramdin, Bradshaw, Collymore, Taylor and Samuels all appear to be locks for regular playing time, and so that leaves Powell, Edwards, Mohammed, Sammy, Morton, Banks, Simmons and Dwayne Smith as the likely candidates to fill the remaining 5 spots on the final squad.
Full Squad
- Omari Banks
- Carlton Baugh
- Ian Bradshaw
- Dwayne Bravo
- Patrick Browne
- Shivnarine Chanderpaul
- Corey Collymore
- Narsingh Deonarine
- Travis Dowlin
- Fidel Edwards
- Rayad Emrit
- Chris Gayle
- Ryan Hinds
- Wavell Hinds
- Sylvester Joseph
- Brian Lara
- Rawl Lewis
- Dave Mohammed
- Runako Morton
- Daren Powell
- Kieron Pollard
- Denesh Ramdin
- Darren Sammy
- Marlon Samuels
- Ramnaresh Sarwan
- Lendl Simmons
- Devon Smith
- Dwayne Smith
- Jerome Taylor
- Gavin Tonge
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