In a positive development for Windies cricket, discarded players Dwayne Bravo, Darren Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine could well be back representing the Windies in One-Day Internationals. These players have been asked to participate in domestic Super50 competition starting in October. It is important for a player to feature in the domestic cricket in order to make it to the national side. Meanwhile, Darren, Pollard, and Narine last represented Windies in an ODI in 2016. On the other hand, all-rounder Dwayne Bravo’s last ODI appearance was four years ago in 2014.
Cricket West Indies CEO Johnny Grave has said that players like these will improve the quality and also make it ‘tough’ for selectors to pick the best. “The overall message to Pollard, the Bravo brothers, and Narine was ‘come and play in the Super50 Cup’ so that Courtney [Browne] and his selection panel will have all the players in system playing. This will not only increase the standard and hopefully give the panel a headache but will help our selectors better gauge and assess our young players if they’re scoring runs against Dwayne Bravo or Sunil in the final overs or getting Darren [Bravo] and Pollard out,” Grave was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
“It’s (Super50 tournament) a very important tournament for us in preparation for the World Cup. People that want to put their names in the hat for consideration would need to play Super50 and perform. Jimmy Adams and I met with Dwayne, Darren, Pollard and Narine’s agent in Trinidad. We met with them individually because they all have different circumstances. I would describe the meetings as positive, as everyone was looking to the future rather than the past. We talked through our entire schedule, not just now and to the 2019 World Cup, but also through all the matches and tours scheduled up to the World T20 in Australia 2020.”
Windies had to go through Qualifiers to make it for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. The ICC World Cup will start from May 30, 2019, with hosts England taking on South Africa in the opening match. Windies face Pakistan in their opening game on day two of the tournament.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 24, 2018 11:17 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).