Friday, June 15, 2007

Gayle takes on one-day captaincy

Opening batsman Chris Gayle has been named as West Indies captain for the one-day series in England.

Gayle will take over from Daren Ganga, who is to return home following the fourth Test, which starts at the Riverside on Friday.

Seam bowlers Corey Collymore and Jerome Taylor have been left out despite playing in the recent World Cup.

The only new face in the 14-man squad is 23-year-old Antiguan batsman Austin Richards Jr.

The West Indies selectors have taken the opportunity to carry out a major shake-up following the team's disappointing performance at the World Cup.

Brian Lara and Ian Bradshaw have retired, Ramnaresh Sarwan is unavailable because of a shoulder injury and Kieron Pollard has been dropped along with Taylor and Collymore.

But all-rounder Dwayne Smith and batsman Lendl Simmons have kept their places despite being overlooked for the Test series against England.

The two sides will play back to back Twenty20 matches at The Oval on 28-29 June before starting a three-match 50-overs series at Lord's on 1 July.

West Indies will then move on to Ireland for a four-nation tournament, also involving Scotland and the Netherlands.

Gayle's only previous international captaincy experience came in a one-day game against India in Cuttack in January which they lost by 20 runs.

Although nominated as skipper by the selectors, his appointment was initially opposed by members of the West Indies board who wanted Ganga to continue, even though he has not played a limited overs international for six months.

But the board backed down after the three-man panel, headed by West Indies Test great Gordon Greenidge, threatened to resign over the matter.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the team's most experienced one-day player and a former skipper, will be Gayle's vice-captain.


West Indies one-day squad: Chris Gayle (captain), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (vice captain), Dwayne Bravo, Fidel Edwards, Runako Morton, Daren Powell, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Austin Richards Jr, Darren Sammy, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Devon Smith, Dwayne Smith.

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