Never mind the unfit prognosis from the West Indies, Ashley Nurse fits the prescription of the Barbados one-day cricket team.
Days after the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) withdrew Ashley Nurse from their Twenty20 team for yesterday’s and tomorrow’s matches against England, the heavy-set off-spinning all-rounder has been named in a predictable Barbados’ 14-man squad for next month’s Regional Super50 Cup in Guyana.
Nurse, 22, had one regional one-day match for the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) in 2008, also in Guyana, but has represented Barbados in T20 cricket for the past two years.
The only two newcomers to regional 50-over cricket in the team are fast-bowling all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite and stylish batsman Kyle Hope.
But both have played first-class cricket, with Brathwaite leaving tomorrow with the West Indies team for the One-Day leg of the Bangladesh tour. He is expected to return to the Caribbean just before the tournament starts.
Brathwaite joins his cousin, left-handed batsman Jonathan Carter in the national team, even though reports have been circulating that both cricketers were also keen on representing CCC.
Hours after Barbados’ final trial match on Thursday at the Pine Basin, Carter and Brathwaite played in a CCC trial match at the 3W’s Oval.
Ashley Nurse pipped his fellow LIME and Deighton Griffith schoolmate leg-spinner Nikolai Charles for the final spin bowling slot in the team, which will be captained by yet another Deighton Griffith old scholar, Kenroy Williams.
Right-handed stroke-maker Rashidi Boucher got the nod over hard-hitting Martin Nurse as the opening partner for the experienced Dale Richards, while wicketkeeper Patrick Browne has been recalled after Carlo Morris was used for the past two years.
Boucher, 21, played a solitary one-day match for the West Indies Under-19 team in 2007 when the side was skittled out for a meagre 18, and another, ironically for Barbados against the Windies Under-19 team, also in Guyana.
Barbados are in the same preliminary group as hosts, Guyana, the Windward Islands and the High Performance Centre, whom they will play in their opening match on October 19.
The Bajans will oppose the Windwards two days later and Guyana on October 23.
The semi-finals are scheduled for October 26 and 27, and the final for October 29 at the Guyana National Stadium in Providence.
