WICB says no to T&TCB call for top players

The T&T Cricket Board (TTCB) has received a double blank from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), as they tried to get their players to represent this country at the Asia versus the Caribbean cricket series which starts at the Queen’s Park Oval tomorrow. The WICB also rejected a call for one of the T&T players at the High Performance Centre to be released to represent T&T in the Champions League in South Africa. Manager of the team Omar Khan explained that the local Board wrote the WICB asking for the release of five players who are currently in camp with the West Indies team in Barbados to play in the Asia versus the Caribbean series. The five were Lendl Simmons, Darren Bravo, Samuel Badree, skipper Denesh Ramdin and Ravi Rampaul. According to Khan: “When we looked at the level of competition expected from the three teams in the tournament (Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Barbados), we thought our players who are likely to be on our team for South Africa would have gotten a great opportunity to play some top level cricket. However, the WICB did not see it that way and did not give in to the request.”

 

Another request made by the TTCB for hard hitting opener Kjorn Ottley to be released from the High Performance Centre (HPC) to make himself available for the Champions League has also been turned down. The West Indies team is currently preparing at a camp in Barbados for the upcoming T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka. Afghanistan and Bangladesh, two of the teams that will be taking part in the Asia versus the Caribbean T20 series. It has raised questions as to why the West Indies team is not taking part but tournament promoter Anthony Harford explained: “The WICB sanctioned the tournament, so they were aware of it. To be truthful, we did not invite them but if after learning of the tournament, they wanted to get it, we would have facilitated them.” Both Afghanistan and Bangladesh are using this series as their final preparation for the T20 World Cup and will fly from the Caribbean to Sri Lanka for the tournament.