In what came as a surprising development from Calypso land, West Indies' destructive left-handed batter Shimron Hetmyer was axed from the T20 World Cup squad after he missed the rescheduled flight to Australia owing to personal reasons. Hetmyer, who was initially slated to travel Down Under on October 01 (Saturday), had requested the West Indies Cricket Board to allow him some more time before boarding the flight to Australia. However, he later informed the board that he won't be making it in time to take the rescheduled flight owing to personal reasons.
The Men in Maroon are scheduled to play a T20I series against the reigning T20 World Cup champions just ahead of the marquee multi-national tournament. Hetmyer's failure to board the rescheduled flight prompted the country's cricket board to replace him with Shamarh Brooks in the squad.
"Whilst we changed Shimron's flight from Saturday to Monday due to family reasons, it was made clear to him that if there were any further delays and issues with his travel to Australia then we would have no choice but to replace him in the squad, as we are not prepared to compromise the team's ability to prepare for this extremely important global event," Director of Cricket Jimmy Adams said.
"Shamarh has been a part of our recent T20 International squads and delivered strong performances in the latter stages of the recently concluded CPL. He will fly out as soon as possible this week to Australia and I wish him and all the squad all the very best for the Tournament," he added.
West Indies will square off against the Baggy Greens in a two-match T20I series before they start their T20 World Cup campaign in the first round.
