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Hetmyer, Paul & Permaul in WI 30-man provisional squad But no room for Shepherd & Keiran Powell
By Sean Devers
The planning by CWI for the West Indies tour of the United Kingdom (UK) with the possibility of playing a Three-Test series set to start in July has included a 30-man squad being named for the possible tour.
Veersammy Permaul
According to sources close to the CWI, the Roger Harper led selection committee has been charged with selecting 30-players from which the touring squad will be named if the tour eventually goes ahead.
The players selected in the 30-man have all been notified but when contacted Guyanese fast bowling all-rounder Romario Shepherd confirmed that he was not among those selected.
The 25-year-old Shepherd who plays for Tucber Park in Berbice, has taken 72 wickets and made three fifties in 23 First-Class matches since making his debut against Jamaica in in 2017, while he has taken four wickets from five ODI games forWest Indies.
Essequibian fast bowling all-rounder, 22-year-old Keemo Paul and the Berbice pair of 23-year-old opener Shimron Hetmyer and left arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul have been included in the preliminary squad.
This was confirmed to Kaieteur sports by Permaul who ended the truncated 2020 Regional First-Class season with 50 wickets from eight matches, the third time he has taken 50 wickets in a single season.
The suspension of the season due to COVID-19 did not give the 31-year-old from Albion in Berbice the chance of breaking his own record of 67 wickets he captured in 2015.
Kemo Paul
Romario Shepherd
Permaul has 535 wickets from 120 matches including 18 from six Tests.
Hetmyer scored 32 in his only match for the Jaguars on his return from Sri Lanka with the West Indies team, while Paul who has six wickets in his three Tests and 87 wickets from 21 First-Class matches, in which he also scored a century, was given a rest and did not play any match after returning from the same tour.
Hetmyer has five fifties in his 16 Tests since making his debut against Pakistan in 2017 and just a single ton in 39 First-Class games.
March 8, 2020 was the last time that any of these players played any competitive cricket.
West Indies Skipper Jason Holder heads a list of 12 from Barbados in the 30, while there was no room in the provisional squad for Nevis and Leewards left-hander Keiran Powell who was the leading run scorer for his team this season after scoring the most runs in the last Regional Super50.
Shimron Hetmyer
The 30-year-old Powell has scored three centuries and six fifties from 40 Tests but he has not played international cricket since December 2018.
The Global COVID-19 Pandemic has badly affected sports in United Kingdom and the Caribbean Islands and Guyana on the South American Mainland and has put the English tour in Jeopardy.
There is no confirmation of anything as yet but both the ECB and CWI Boards have had medical and cricket discussions. Another conference call has been fixed for Monday between the two Boards.
There are plans to play three matches at venues with Hotels and the West Indies squad which could be as large as 25 players, the Coaching staff and team officials and even the West Indies Media, will have to be quarantined for 14-days and the games played without spectators.
It is also understood that CWI will ask the ECB to stand the expenses for the extra players. The larger than usual squad is to serve as cover for the eventualities of players getting ill or injured and players don’t have to be sent from the Caribbean since they will have to go through to two-week quarantine.
As a part of the strategy to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, the UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Government announced that some sporting events could take place behind closed-doors for broadcast only from June 1.
But in was noted that these plans will be reviewed often and postponed if there is a growth in the virus infection rate.
The tour going ahead depends on the UK Government’s policy to allow the players into the Country and issuing of visitors Visas during the pandemic.
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