CWIMA announces its squad for inaugural O-60s World Cup in Australia

Aug 19, 2022 Sports

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.

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 then 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) has now 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. He 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 2^nd 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 majority of the team will wing out from Los Angeles on Sunday August 28^th 2022 with a direct flight out to Brisbane Australia where they will hope to get acclimatized to the weather and conditions a few days prior to the actual tournament. They will then engage in a solitary practice match on Wednesday September 1^st, have net sessions on Thursday before the tournament commences on Saturday September 3^rd. There will be a grand Opening Ceremony on Friday, September 2^nd with the Presentation/Closing ceremony slated for September 15^th.

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
Montgomery Venkersammy

Managers will be Raj Singh and Dave Narine.

Pool A	Pool B
· Australia	· New Zealand
· Canada	· Pakistan
· India	· Rest of the World
· Sri Lanka	· South Africa
· Wales	· USA
· Zimbabwe	· West Indies