BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):
WEST INDIES lead selector Desmond Haynes and white-ball head coach Daren Sammy said they were confident that the right squad was selected for the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup next month in the Caribbean and the United States.
Haynes and Sammy officially announced on Friday that co-hosts West Indies rolled the dice and named the Guyanese duo of uncapped pacer Shamar Joseph and left-handed batsman Shimron Hetmyer in their provisional 15-member squad for the global showpiece.
Joseph, 24, has played only three T20s in his career and is yet to make his international debut in the format, and Hetmyer, 27, a former West Indies Under-19 World Cup-winning captain, was included after being dropped during the home series against England last Christmas, overlooked in January for the tour of Australia, and modest runs in the IPL.
Haynes said he felt the squad selected had all the resources to follow in the footsteps of the title-winning squads of 2012 and 2016.
“This is a very good time in West Indies cricket,” he told reporters during a news conference in the Barbados capital of Bridgetown.
“I believe that we’ve got a team that can win this World Cup and I feel damn good about this.
“We’ve had preparations for the last year. The majority of the players, we had them involved and they were very successful. This is a very exciting time for us, and I would hope that everyone in the Caribbean, and all the West Indies fans, support us, because this is our best chance.”
‘An exciting time’
West Indies are two-time champions of the tournament, having won in 2012 in Sri Lanka and 2016 in India under the leadership of Sammy and guidance of coaches Ottis Gibson and Phil Simmons, respectively.
“We know how to select winning teams,” Sammy said.
“We’ve done it before, and I think, as a selection group, we’re really excited about it.
“It’s an exciting time, and this preparation did not start now. It started from the last World Cup in Australia. What we’ve been able to do throughout the last year as a T20 group, the players we’ve exposed, has brought us to this moment, and I think we’re about to ‘knock it out of this world’.”
Both Haynes and Sammy said finding players to fit specific roles in the side was an important part of the selection process because of the nature of the format and the length of the tournament, and this led to some of the choices that were made.
“We had very long discussions, especially with the batting, and our process has always been about roles,” Haynes said.
“From the time that Sammy came in, and I also agreed with him, we’ve looked at the roles that we want players to play.”
Sammy added: “We are ready. When you look at role definition from the group we’ve selected, I think we’ve come up with the best combination to help us win this World Cup.
“All the preparation, all the thought process identifying the key roles that we need to be effective in to help us win, has brought us to this moment. I think we have the guys that are ready to go out and execute for us.”
All World Cup provisional squads may be changed up to May 25, after which any alterations will require approval from the technical committee of the tournament.
West Indies will play in Group ‘C’ of the tournament with Afghanistan and New Zealand, and two ICC Associate teams, Papua New Guinea and Uganda.
Their first two matches in the tournament will be at the Guyana National Stadium, where they face the Papuans on June 2 and take on the Ugandans six days later.
The Caribbean side will complete the group stage against New Zealand on June 12 at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad and Afghanistan five days later at the venue named after their coach in his homeland of St Lucia.