WHILE they may have recently turned down the West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) offer of central retainer contracts, all-rounders Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard will suit up for Trinidad and Tobago in next month’s regional 50-overs one-day tournament in Jamaica.
The pair have been named in the defending champions’ 14-member squad, led by former Test batsman Daren Ganga, for the October 14 to 24 tournament.
The Trinidadians, who missed out on a second campaign in the Champions League after they were unseated by Guyana as the Caribbean Twenty20 kings, will oppose the Barbados-based Combined Campuses and Colleges in their opening game at Chedwin Park on October 14.
Bravo returned to the twin-island republic on Wednesday night, after his team, Mumbai Indians, failed to advance to the semi-finals of the Champions League in South Africa.
Pollard, who also played with the Mumbai Indians, is expected home shortly to join the team in their final preparations for the eight-team tournament.
But Trinidad and Tobago manager Colin Borde told the Trinidad Express that while Bravo and Pollard have their reasons for turning down the WICB offer for the US$80 000 contracts, he was confident they remained committed to West Indies cricket.
“They are available for selection for West Indies. I don’t think by not signing the central contracts that they are not interested in West Indies cricket. It is just that, probably, they did not want to be contracted year-round,” he said.
The squad
Daren Ganga (captain), Adrian Barath, Darren Bravo, Denesh Ramdin, Imran Khan, Dave Mohammed, Kevon Cooper, Dwayne Bravo, Lendl Simmons, Kieron Pollard, Jason Mohammed, Samuel Badree, Ravi Rampaul, Sherwin Ganga; officials: Kelvin Williams (coach), Colin Borde (manager), Ronald Rogers (trainer).
