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West Indies drop IPL star from World Cup squad over missed flight to Australia; Shamarh Brooks named replacement
The IPL superstar has been replaced by Shamarh Brooks in the T20 World Cup squad of the West Indies. The Men from the Caribbean will play a two-match series against Australia ahead of the World Cup.
Star player Shimron Hetmyer has been dropped from the World Cup squad of the West Indies on Monday. Hetmyer's ouster was confirmed by Cricket West Indies (CWI) after the Rajasthan Royals (RR) star batter missed his 're-scheduled' flight to Australia. As per the official release shared by Cricket West Indies on Monday, Hetmyer's re-scheduled flight to Australia was changed from Saturday (1 October) at his request. The West Indies batter had opted to re-schedule his flight to Australia due to family reasons.
At a time when flight availability has been a real challenge, a seat was made available for Hetmyer and the star player was scheduled to Guyana on Monday. However, Hetmyer informed the director of West Indies Cricket that he would not make his rearranged flight in time. Thus, Cricket West Indies has decided to drop Hetmyer from the West Indies squad for the 2022 edition of the World Cup.
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Jimmy Adams, who is director of cricket for Cricket West Indies, has confirmed the inclusion of Shamarh Brooks in the World Cup squad. “This afternoon we informed the CWI Board of Directors that the Selection Panel had unanimously decided to replace Shimron Hetmyer with Shamarh Brooks in our T20 World Cup squad," Adams said in a statement.
Hetmyer was bought by 2008 Indian Premier League (IPL) winners Rajasthan Royals (RR) for INR 8.5 crore ahead of the 15th season. "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,” he added.
Brooks will leave for Australia later this week and Hetmyer's replacement will not feature in the upcoming two-match T20I series against Australia. Brooks is set to join the World Cup squad of the West Indies directly in Melbourne. Brooks and Hetmyer recently featured in the playoffs of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL). Brooks smashed an unbeaten 109 in Qualifier 2 to help Jamaica Tallawahs enter the final of the elite tournament.
