Hetmyer Ousted From WI World Cup Squad For Missing Flight

Guyana: Drama unfolded in the Caribbean islands when the Cricket West Indies (CWI) announced on Monday that Shamarh Brooks will take Shimron Hetmyer’s place in the West Indies team for the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia.

After Hetmyer missed his flight to Australia that had been postponed from October 1 at his request owing to family obligations, the CWI made the announcement. Hetmyer informed the Director of Cricket that he would not be able to make it to the airport in time for his departure.

Hetmyer last competed in the Caribbean Premier League 2022 as the Guyana Amazon Warriors’ captain. The unexpected turn of events led to a unanimous decision by the CWI to replace him with Brooks, who would now leave later this week to join his national team in Australia.

“This afternoon we informed the CWI Board of Directors that the Selection Panel had unanimously decided to replace ShimronHetmyer with Shamarh Brooks in our T20 World Cup squad,” CWI said in a statement.

“Whilst we changed Shimron’s flight from Saturday to Monday due to family reasons, it was made clear to him that if there were any further delays and issues with his travel to Australia then we would have no choice but to replace him in the squad, as we are not prepared to compromise the team’s ability to prepare for this extremely important global event.”, the statement further read.

“Shamarh has been a part of our recent T20I squads and delivered strong performances in the latter stages of the recently concluded Caribbean Premier League (CPL). He will fly out as soon as possible this week to Australia.”

West Indies revised squad for T20 World Cup:

Nicholas Pooran (c), Rovman Powell, Shamarh Brooks, Yannic Cariah, Johnson Charles, Sheldon Cottrell, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Brandon King, Evin Lewis, Kyle Mayers, Obed Mccoy, Raymon Reifer, Odean Smith.

In the first round of the competition, the West Indies are grouped with Scotland, Zimbabwe, and Ireland in Group B. On October 17, in Hobart, the Pooran-led team will kick-start their campaign against Scotland. West Indies are scheduled to play Australia in two T20Is ahead of the world cup.