The West Indies O50 team will still be missing some
key players for this UK tour but have still been able to
put together a very formidable lineup for this maiden
tour of England and Wales. West Indies will be without
some of its key players, such as William Lashley, Vejai
Seonarine, Shiv Seeram, Krish Harricharan and Lawrence Pooran.
Lashley had his first tour in Houston Texas in March of this year
and made quite an impact with both bat and ball. Vejai Seonarine
had a very lean series in Texas which was in stark contrast to his
wonderful series during the Americas Cup in Canada last August
when he had skyrocketed to the number 2 ranking in the world.
He has now dropped to number 8 but is still the highest ranked WI
player in the world O50s.
However, Windies will be buttressed with the inclusion of the
Dhaniram brothers, Sunil and Sudesh, who are both available for this
important tour. Both brothers have previous experience in English
conditions and will be expected to play a major role for the Windies
Masters in this tour.
Sunil is currently ranked at #46 in the World
rankings after just one series in the Americas Cup. It’s quite
surprising that Sudesh is not currently ranked in the top 50
but will obviously want to correct that anomaly. The other
West Indians in the top 50 rankings of the world are: Azad
Mohammed-#25, dropping several points from #4; Fareed
Hosein at #35; Zamin Amin at #39; and Mohan Harihar at
#40. All these guys will look to improve on their current
rankings on this tour with some of the others looking to
break into the top 50.
Kenny Girdharry had a great series with the ball in Texas and
will surely look to lead the bowling attack for the West Indies.
Kenny will have 2 other seamers in the team with Mark
Audain who is rejoining the team after a brief hiatus since
the 2020 World Cup in South Africa and Mohan Harihar
who had an excellent series with the ball in Canada during
the Americas Cup.
Fareed Hosein who is one of the top
all rounders in the team and the only leg spinner in the
squad will be a key player for the West Indies should
they come out on top in this tournament. Ishwar Maraj
had some good starts in Texas but did not carry on
fulfilling the obvious vast potential that he has. He will have to temper his shot selection and
bat for longer periods.
Anthony Sahadeo is the only newcomer to the West Indies side as its
first-choice keeper and will be looking to cement his place in the team for the O50s World
Cup next March. Sadeo had a few good starts also in Texas but must concentrate harder
and bat longer for his team.
Both Sahadeo and Sadeo are attacking batsmen and if they are
chosen to open could form a very lethal pair as a left-handed and right-handed combination.
Ishwar Maraj has also opened for the West Indies in previous series.
There are quite a few contenders for the opening slots, namely: Mark Audain, Kris Ramdat, Roy Singh, and Azad
Mohammed. Bidhesi is a seasoned veteran and had a decent tour in Texas but was crippled
with a groin injury. He is now back to full fitness and will be rearing to go.
Once again, the evergreen Zamin Amin will be leading the West Indies team in the UK which
consists of 12 @ O50s players and 4 @ O60s players, namely: Roy Singh, Rick Ali, Kris Ramdat
& Hafiz Mohamed. CWIMA made a conscious decision to include a few O60s players for this
tour with the specific intention of giving them some valuable match practice prior to their
O60s World Cup in Brisbane, Australia in September.
West Indies will play a total of 7 ODIs within the space of 11 days and will commence
their tour on July 3rd with 2 practice ODI games against Wales in Wales, then travel to
London for another 2 practice ODIs at Broxbourne and Gravesend against England
and India respectively
The full squad is: Zamin Amin- Captain, Imtiaz ‘Rick’ Ali, Mark Audain, Narine Bidhesi
Sudesh Dhaniram, Sunil Dhaniram. Kenny Girdharry. Brijmohan Harihar, Fareed Hosein, Ishwar Maraj
Hafiz Mohamed, Azad Mohammed, Krishendat Ramdat, Rajendra ‘Daniel Sadeo, Anthony Sahadeo
Balwant ‘Roy’ Singh.Manager: Raj Singh, Asst. Manager: Dave Narine, Ambassador: Colin Croft