West Indies omit Ridley Jacobs

[Craig]

I must say I was surprised when the Windies left out Ridley Jacobs out of their 14 man squad for the ICC Champions Trophy squad. Tino Best is out injured so he wasn't considered,however, Brian Lara has not been confirmed as the captain and Courtney Browne makes a return to the squad somewhat surprisingly.

Merv Dillion makes return.

Full squad: Ian Bradshaw, Dwayne Bravo, Courtney Browne, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Corey Collymore, Mervyn Dillon, Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Sylvester Joseph, Brian Lara, Jermaine Lawson, Ricardo Powell, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Dwayne Smith.

 

[Neil Pickup]

"Somewhat" surprisingly?

"Bolt from the blue" is closer in my mind!

 

[Magrat Garlick]

At least they didn't call up Junior Murray...though with the recent flood of youth players being phased in to the WIndies team, one may ask why Denesh Ramdin wasn't given the go...

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Junior Murray is a better batsman than Courtney Browne.

 

[Andre]

Is he a better captain, however? This is about all I can see in his selection.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Junior Murray is a better batsman than Courtney Browne.

He's also two years older. Would be even more of a backward step.

 

[garage flower]

Yep, it's a strange one. I can only really understand it in terms of West Indies wanting to give Ridley a break (understandably) and deciding that none of the younger candidates are ready to step up. There must be some logic somewhere, musn't there?............

I'm happy with the rest of the squad, except I would have quite liked to see Marlon Samuels return in place of Joseph. Given his long injury absence though (would his last first class cricket have been the Sri Lanka 1-dayers in July 03?) I can understand his exclusion.

If the team were picked now, I'd leave out Collymore, Smith and Joseph to give:

Gayle
Chanderpaul
Hinds
Lara
Sarwan * (to gain experience, not permanently)
Powell
Bravo
Browne
Bradshaw
Dillon
Lawson

 

[Adamc]

Sarwan * (to gain experience, not permanently)

Would cause a few problems if the West Indies do well though... not that that's a bad thing.

 

[garage flower]

Would cause a few problems if the West Indies do well though... not that that's a bad thing.

Exactly, it would be a nice problem to have.

Sarwan isn't captaining Guyana so I think he needs to be given the opportunity by the West Indies in the 1-day arena, where - other than the World Cup - results aren't especially significant.

 

[steds]

What about Carlton Baugh? What's the point in dragging him over here for the Natwest Series and the test series, playing him in one ODI, and dumping him?

 

[Mister Wright]

Isn't Baugh considered a good enough 1 day bat?

 

[garage flower]

Baugh has a good first class batting record, but has looked like a fish out of water in international cricket. His 'keeping doesn't seem to be particulary highly rated.

As no-one has yet been named to the position, there appears to be a fair chance that Browne - the Barbados captain - has been called up as a kind of "specialist captain".

 

[Dar]

Whats the point in dropping Jacobs and playing a 33 year old instead? Very surprisng, especially since Baugh has been considered the reserve keeper in tests

 

[Craig]

I believe Jacobs is 36 and Lara is still captain.

 

[Craig]

Junior Murray is a better batsman than Courtney Browne.

He sure as hell didn't demostrate that when he got picked v India in 2002.

 

[superkingdave]

I think Ridley is carrying an injury ATM, there has been some rumour about him missing this test as a result. Maybe hes being rested, although i would hazard a guess that he might announce his retirement from ODI's soon, maybe even tests at the end of this tour

 

[roseboy64]

Lara has been named as captain.Also, I don't know why Marlon Samuels was left out.Dwayne Smith didn't do too well in the Natwest Series and he's not being given a go in the Tests so why pick him.Samuels has been playing in the US and Hinds has been out almost as long as him so I see no reason for his exclusion.

 

[viktor]

i seem to remember that Samuels had a major injury. but if he's back to playing cricket, i can't imagine why he wasn't selected. unless he didn't do well in FC cricket since his return

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

i seem to remember that Samuels had a major injury. but if he's back to playing cricket, i can't imagine why he wasn't selected. unless he didn't do well in FC cricket since his return

He hasn't played FC cricket since his return. Hinds has.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

He sure as hell didn't demostrate that when he got picked v India in 2002.

Having seen the series I can assure you he got a couple of iffy decisions from the umpires.