They weren’t even in the selectors provisional list but ICBL Empire’s Roston Chase and Justin Brathwaite of LIME have made the Barbados 14-man squad for the Caribbean Twenty20 next month.
They join fellow newcomers Shamarh Brooks, the Super Centre Spartan captain and TeleBarbados Carlton’s Kyle Mayers in a shake-up of the batting line-up for the tournament to be held in Trinidad and Tobago and St Lucia.
Chase, who wasn’t even chosen for last week’s two practice matches, earned selection after impressing with bat and ball for Empire in the preliminaries of the local Sagicor Twenty20.
In fact, the allrounder, who had travelled with the Barbados side to Trinidad and Tobago just over a month ago for a quadrangular T20 tournament, was called up to join the trials list only a few days ago.
Brathwaite, a 24-year-old hard-hitting left-handed opener, was drafted into the training unit after following up a blazing half-century against Empire with a boundary-studded hundred versus Carlton.
Brooks, with no real eye-catching scores in T20 cricket, gained favour with the new selection panel chaired by Hendy Wallace.
Only the dynamic Dwayne Smith, Jonathan Carter, the experienced former national skipper Ryan Hinds and young wicket-keeper Shane Dowrich of the batsmen have been retained from the last West Indies Twenty20.
Apart from Dale Richards, Kirk Edwards and Kevin Stoute, who weren’t even invited to training, opener Rashidi Boucher has lost his place.
West Indies duo Tino Best and Fidel Edwards will spearhead the pace attack with support from Javon Searles, Carlos Brathwaite and possibly Carter, who is an underrated fast-medium swing bowler.
Sulieman Benn, Ashley Nurse, Hinds and Chase will provide the spin.
While Brooks and Mayers, a member of the West Indies Under-19 team at the Youth World Cup last August, are in the squad, big-hitting Alcindo Holder, a regular in Barbados’ Twenty20 team since 2006, has been surprisingly relegated to the reserves list.
The other reserves are Boucher, fast-bowling all-rounder Christopher Jordan and Maple all-rounder Jamar Griffith, who had the amazing bowling figures of 4-3-2-3 in the second practice game against the High Performance Centre.
There is no room for Renaldo Brathwaite of the Barbados Defence Force Sports Programme, who is a top-order batsman and steady off-spinner.
Former policeman Hartley Reid has been named manager. The remaining members of the management and coaching staff as well as the captain will be announced at a later date.
SQUAD: Sulieman Benn, Tino Best, Carlos Brathwaite, Justin Brathwaite, Shamarh Brooks, Jonathan Carter, Roston Chase, Shane Dowrich, Fidel Edwards, Ryan Hinds, Kyle Mayers, Ashley Nurse, Javon Searles, Dwayne Smith.
Reserves: Rashidi Boucher, Jamar Griffith, Alcindo Holder, Christopher Jordan.
Manager: Hartley Reid.
