St John's–The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) yesterday named a 14-man squad the upcoming 2016 ICC World Twenty20 tournament, with 12 of the orignal players selected retaining their places in the team.
Those players who were originally named in the 15-man squad include: Sulieman Benn, Jason Holder, Andre Fletcher, Darren Sammy–captain, Dwayne Bravo, Samuel Badree, Lendl Simmons, Jerome Taylor, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Denesh Ramdin, Chris Gayle.
The Board said it had received signed contracts from the 12 named while Sunil Narine and Kieron Pollard have both withdrawn from the squad and have been replaced by Ashley Nurse and Carlos Brathwaite.
Middle-order batsman, Darren Bravo has written to the selectors to say he will prefer to play in the Professional Cricket League (PCL), currently on going and therefore would like to be excused from the tournament.
"Indeed I'm very grateful and humbled for the opportunity to represent the West Indies Cricket Team at the World Cup. However, I'm of the firm belief that I have a very big part to play in the resurgence of West Indies cricket in the longer formats of the game and I will like the opportunity to play in our Professional Cricket League (PCL) because will put me in good stead and will allow me to achieve those goals that I have aligned myself for the year 2016 and beyond."
The selectors will name Bravo's replacement shortly.
West Indies are ranked number two in this Twenty20 format of the game and were the winners in 2012. The tournament is set for March 8 to April 3 in India. Details of the pre-tournament camp will be released soon.