Cricket West Indies (CWI) has informed the International Cricket Council (ICC) that Shamarh Brooks has replaced Shimron Hetmyer in the West Indies Squad for the upcoming ICC Twenty/20 Cricket World Cup in Australia.
The decision by the CWI Selection Panel was made after Hetmyer missed his re-scheduled flight to Australia, which had been changed from last Saturday at his request, due to family reasons.
The availability of a flight was a real challenge, but a seat was found for him to leave Guyana yesterday which meant that he would have missed the 1st Twenty/20 International against Australia tomorrow.
Yesterday morning, Hetmyer informed CWI’s Director of Cricket, Jimmy Adams that he would not be able to get to the airport in time for his flight to New York yesterday afternoon.
Adams said: “Whilst we changed Hetmyer’s flight from last Saturday to yesterday because of family reasons, it was made clear to him that if there were any further delays and issues with his travel to Australia there would be no choice but to replace him in the squad, as we are not prepared to compromise the team’s ability to prepare for this extremely important global event.”
Adams noted that CWI’s Selection Committee unanimously decided to replace Hetmyer with Brooks in the ICC Twenty/20 Cricket World Cup squad.
The full squad is: Nicholas Pooran (Captain), Rovman Powell (Vice-captain), Shamarh Brooks, Yannic Cariah, Johnson Charles, Sheldon Cottrel, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Brandon King, Evin Lewis, Kyle Mayers, Obed Mc Coy, Raymon Reifer and Odean Smith.
The West Indies are in Group B with Scotland, Zimbabwe and Ireland for Round 1 of the Cricket World Cup.
The West Indies and Australia will meet in two warm-up matches tomorrow and Friday, before they play against Scotland in their first Group B match in Round 1.
