MARLON GRAHAM’S persistence has finally paid off . And he has an early birthday present too.
The off-spinning all-rounder, who celebrates his 32nd birthday on Monday, was yesterday named as the sole newcomer in a 14-man Barbados squad for the forthcoming West Indies Cricket Board’s Regional 50-overs tournament in Jamaica.
Graham, captain of TeleBarbados Carlton for the past two seasons, has been an effective performer in the shorter forms of the game in domestic competitions over the past few years.
A former Barbados youth team captain, he is a mean off-spinner who has bowled with a high degree of economy in both the Sagicor General Twenty20 and Cup competitions and is a middle-order batsman.
Graham’s inclusion is one of four changes to the Barbados squad that finished as runners-up in the inaugural Caribbean Twenty20 competition in July. The others are prolific youth batsman Kraigg Brathwaite, fellow opener Jason Haynes and pacer Tino Best.
While Graham wins favour, another off-spinning all-rounder, Ashley Nurse, who performed impressively on his debut for Barbados in the Caribbean Twenty20, misses out, along with Alcindo Holder, Jason Hinds and Larry Babb.
However, Nurse may still play in the tournament but with the Sagicor High Performance Centre (HPC) team after he was called up as a replacement for the recent tour of Canada.
It should also be noted that this is the first time that Brathwaite, who played two matches for the West Indies Under-19 team in last year’s tournament, and Javon Searles have been chosen in the Barbados 50-over team.
Barbados, who were also runners-up in last year’s competition, have been placed in Group B alongside Guyana, Leeward Islands and debutants Sagicor HPC for the October 14 to 24 tournament.
The squad: Ryan Hinds (captain), Sulieman Benn, Tino Best, Kraigg Brathwaite, Jonathan Carter, Kirk Edwards, Marlon Graham, Jason Haynes, Carlo Morris, Dale Richards, Kemar Roach, Javon Searles, Dwayne Smith, Kevin Stoute. (HG)
