- File
Xavier Marshall... one of six players with no international experience, was selected for a 25-man camp, which starts on November 29.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP):
RISING JAMAICAN batting star, Xavier Marshall, was yesterday selected for a 25-man camp by West Indies officials to prepare for next year's triangular one-day series in Australia.
The West Indies selectors Carew, Gordon Greenidge and Clyde Butts included six players with no international experience for the camp, starting on November 29.
They are Deighton Butler, Sherwin Ganga, Marshall, Narsingh Deonarine, Denesh Ramdin and Dwight Washington.
Marshall and Ramdin, stars of the West Indies youth team that reached the final of the under-19 World Cup last January in Bangladesh, also gained senior recognition for the first time.
Marshall added to his reputation as a dynamic right-handed batsman with a prolific regional one-day tournament for Jamaica. Wicket-keeper Ramdin, the under-19 skipper, was part of the President's Cup-winning Trinidad and Tobago team.
FIRST SENIOR CALL-UPS
Butler, a 30-year-old left-arm paceman from St. Vincent, and Ganga, a left-handed opener and tidy off-spinner from Trinidad, gained their first senior call-ups.
Ganga, 22, joins elder brother Daren, a right-handed batsman, on the squad.
Explosive batsman Dwayne Smith was a surprise omission.
The 21-year-old Smith scored a century on Test debut against South Africa at Cape Town last January and had been chosen in all the West Indies' squads since.
But the powerful right-hander, who also bowls tidy medium pace, will miss a three-week training camp ahead of the Australian series after a disappointing summer tour of England.
CRITERIA FOR SELECTION
"The selection was based on two things," chairman of selectors Carew told The Associated Press. "First, the return of some of those who were on the injured or unavailability list and, second, on performance in the regional one-day tournament and the potential of some of the players we saw."
The squad will be trimmed to 14 before it departs for Australia on December 29. Pakistan are the other team in the tournament, which starts on January 14.
Smith was dropped from the Barbados team during the President's Cup following paltry returns in last month's regional limited-overs competition.
"We believe he has a tremendous amount of potential and that he is just going through a phase when he needs to score some runs, get some wickets and feel confident when he gets on to the field," Carew said. "I'm sure in the not-too-distant future he'll be back in the squad."
Batsman Sylvester Joseph was also cut after modest returns in England.
Deonarine, a left-handed batsman from Guyana, and Jamaican fast bowler Dwight Washington have appeared in West Indies training squads previously.
The selectors' fast bowling options have been hit by long-term injuries to talented youngsters Tino Best, Fidel Edwards, Ravi Rampaul and Jermaine Lawson.
That has paved the way for the recall of Reon King, who last appeared for the West Indies on the tour of Zimbabwe and Kenya in 2001.
Also returning is Leeward Islands batsman Runako Morton, who missed the first-class competition earlier this year because of a disciplinary ban. The 26-year-old forced his way into the squad with the most runs (312) in the President's Cup.
The squad:
Ian Bradshaw, Dwayne Bravo, Courtney Browne, Deighton Butler, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Pedro Collins, Corey Collymore, Mervyn Dillon, Narsingh Deonarine, Sherwin Ganga, Daren Ganga, Chris Gayle, Ryan Hinds, Wavell Hinds, Reon King, Brian Lara, Xavier Marshall, Runako Morton, Ricardo Powell, Denesh Ramdin, Darren Sammy, Marlon Samuels, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Devon Smith, Dwight Washington.
