Masters cricket continues to evolve with its very first Over 60s World Cup
being staged in the Sunshine Coast of beautiful state of Queensland, Australia
featuring 12 strong teams from around the world, namely: Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Rest of the World, South Africa, Sri Lanka, USA, Wales, West Indies and Zimbabwe. These teams have been divided into
2 groups as follows:
POOL A: Australia, Canada, India. Sri Lanka, Wales, Zimbabwe.
POOL B: New Zealand, Pakistan. Rest Of The World, South Africa, USA, West Indies.
The format for the games will entail each team
playing each other in the round-robin stage,
then the cross over Semi-Finals, followed by
the World Cup position playoffs and the grand
final between the 2 top teams. All matches will
be of 45 overs duration with 3 power plays of
15 overs each whereby only 3, 4 and 5 players
respectively are allowed outside of the 30-yard
circle.
Cricket West Indies Masters Association
(CWIMA) announced its 15-man
squad to take part in this World Cup with little
or no big names featuring therein. Headlining
the team is the all-rounder, Richard Sieuchan,
who represented Trinidad and Tobago during
the period 1986 to 1991. Richard played 7 First
Class matches and 9 List A matches and had a highest score of
45. Has 12 First Class wickets with a best of 4 for 45 and 11 List
A wickets with a best of 3 for 34.
Much is expected of Richard who is still actively playing cricket
in TT, bats left-handed and bowls right arm fast medium. The
team will be captained by Balwant Roy Singh who is indeed a
veteran of these World Cups having participated in them all
since 2018. Roy was part of the Canadian Over 50s squad in
December 2018 during that inaugural World Cup for O50s
which was won by Australia. Roy then chose to represent
West Indies in the 2nd O50s World Cup held in Cape Town,
South Africa in March 2020 which was unfortunately aborted
due to COVID. Roy registered a solitary half century in both
of these World Cups and had some decent dismissals behind
the stumps. Roy has stuck with the West Indies teams and has
now graduated to be the captain of the O60s squad for this
inaugural World Cup.
CWIMA was hoping to feature a few big names at this World
Cup in the form of Alvin Kallicharran and Colin Croft, but,
unfortunately, Alvin broke his finger in 2 places whilst coaching
in North Carolina a few days ago and work commitments did
not allow Crofty to be part of the squad. Crofty had toured
with the West Indies squad in March 2022 to Houston Texas
and had made an appearance at the Marlborough Cup in
England last month. Attempts were also made to have Collis
King on board with this team. Collis King still plies his trade in
the English circuit.
THE FULL WEST INDIES SQUAD READS:
Balwant Roy Singh-Captain, Virganand Gossai, Howard Jodhan-
Player/Coach, Ronald Khan, Keith Lawrence, Hafiz Mohamed,
Walter Persaud, Krishendath Ramdat, Tejnarine Ramroop, Pramesh Seheult, Richard Seheult, Gerald Singh, Prem Deonarine Singh, Sunderdat Sookram and Montgomery Venkersammy. Managers will be Raj Singh and
Dave Narine.
The majority of the team flew from Los Angeles on Sunday August 28th 2022 with a direct flight out to Brisbane Australia where they hoped to get acclimatized to the weather and conditions a few days prior to the actual tournament. They engaged in a solitary practice match on Wednesday September 1st, had
net sessions on Thursday before the tournament commenced on Saturday September 3rd. There was a grand Opening Ceremony on Friday, September 2nd with the Presentation/Closing ceremony slated for September 15.
