Three Guyanese have been named in West Indies’ 30-man provisional squad for the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Leon Johnson who is currently touring with the West Indies team in South Africa and Veerasammy Permaul have received their first call up to the world event, while Narsingh Deonarine has given the selectors more options, due to his current form in regional cricket.
Johnson who captained the West Indies U-19 team to the 2006 ICC Under-19 World Cup, told this newspaper that he was happy to be considered. “It’s great to be considered for possible selection for cricket’s biggest stage but at the moment I’m just concentrating on the big task of the upcoming ‘test’ series against South Africa,” he said. On the other hand, Ravi Rampaul was a noticeable omission from the group. Rampaul played two ODIs during the 2014-15 tour of India in October before the series was cancelled because of a dispute between the West Indies players, the WICB and WIPA.
Six uncapped players were also included in the squad: left-arm seamer Kenroy Peters, leg spinner Imran Khan, off spinner Ashley Nurse, impressive 19-year-old fast bowler Marquino Mindley, left-hand opener Evin Lewis and all-rounder Jonathan Carter.
The full 30 reads: Sulieman Benn, Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Jonathan Carter, Sheldon Cottrell, Miguel Cummins, Narsingh Deonarine, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Jason Holder, Imran Khan, Leon Johnson, Evin Lewis, Nikita Miller, Marquino Mindley, Sunil Narine, Ashley Nurse, Kenroy Peters, Veerasammy Permaul, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Darren Sammy, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith, Devon Smith, Jerome Taylor.
