**Official** West Indies in England 2012

[BoyBrumby]

Schedule:

Sat May 5 - Mon May 7 (11.00 BST)
Sussex v West Indians (County Ground, Hove)

Thu May 10 - Sun May 13 (11.00 BST)
England Lions v West Indians (County Ground, Northampton)

Thu May 17 - Mon May 21 (11.00 BST)
1st Test - England v West Indies (Lord's)

Fri May 25 - Tue May 29 (11.00 BST)
2nd Test - England v West Indies (Trent Bridge)

Sat Jun 2 - Sun Jun 3 (11.00 BST)
Leicestershire v West Indians (Grace Road)

Thu Jun 7 - Mon Jun 11 (11.00 BST)
3rd Test - England v West Indies (Edgbaston)

Wed Jun 13 (10:45 BST)
Middlesex v West Indians (Lord's)

Sat Jun 16 (10:45 BST)
1st ODI - England v West Indies (The Rose Bowl)

Tue Jun 19 (10:45 BST)
2nd ODI - England v West Indies (Kennington Oval)

Fri Jun 22 (10:45 BST)
3rd ODI - England v West Indies (Headingley)

Sun Jun 24 (14:30 BST)
Only T20I - England v West Indies (Trent Bridge)

West Indies touring squad: Darren Sammy (capt); Kirk Edwards (vice-capt); Adrian Barath; Darren Bravo; Shivnarine Chanderpaul; Narsingh Deonarine; Fidel Edwards; Assad Fudadin; Shannon Gabriel; Kieran Powell; Kemar Roach; Denesh Ramdin; Ravi Rampaul; Marlon Samuels; Shane Shillingford

England Loins squad: James Taylor (Nottinghamshire) (capt); Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire); Jack Brooks (Northamptonshire); Michael Carberry (Hampshire); Matt Coles (Kent); Nick Compton (Somerset); Jade Dernbach (Surrey); Simon Kerrigan (Lancashire); Stuart Meaker (Surrey); Samit Patel (Nottinghamshire); Joe Root (Yorkshire); Ben Stokes (Durham)

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Less than a week until the first tour game versus Mr z's chaps so I thought we were overdue a thread.

Hoping it'll be made official & stickied, but one doesn't like to presume.

Several talking points:

1) Who'll play #6 for England? Ravi looks to have the inside track, but one NRD Compton is holding his hand up. Stokes and Patel probably have their backers too.

2) Can Strauss and/or Bell buy a run and/or keep their places?

3) No Gayle, Bravo sr or Narine in the Windies' squad; is the IPL a calumny on test cricket's primacy?

 

[uvelocity]

3) No Gayle, Bravo sr or Narine in the Windies' squad; is the IPL a calumny on test cricket's primacy?

Should be disallowed from playing in any domestic comp including IPL if unavailable for national selection except in the case of age based or injury based retirement. Or some other genuine reason ala the depression cases.

 

[Spikey]

is that a joke i can't tell

 

[uvelocity]

uhhh yes?

 

[BoyBrumby]

As I understand it players still need their chit stamped by their local board of control to take part in the IPL, so the WICB must've okayed them playing on some level.

I suppose it's a recognition of the direction the wind's blowing in; there's no way the Windies' can compete with an IPL salary and no point pretending otherwise. My personal opinion remains that it should have its own international window as it's a domestic comp in name only.

Samuels's presence in the squad noteworthy tho and not just because he's a matchfixing chucker (); he has a current IPL contract too, does he not? One fails to see how he's more crucial to the Windies' chances than the other trio.

 

[vic_orthdox]

I think it has to do with the contract situation. WI have a small contract list, and some of those players missed out on them, or in Gayle's case the arguments he had with the board led to him not receiving one. They have to be contracted players for the board to hold primacy.

 

[Howe_zat]

3) No Gayle, Bravo sr or Narine in the Windies' squad; is the IPL a calumny on test cricket's primacy?

Narine likely wouldn't make the side, Bravo senior shouldn't make the side and Gayle's issues with the board are hardly limited to the IPL's conflict of interest.

Where is Lendl Simmons, though?

 

[Howe_zat]

Also, they seem to be taking this rule of "No West Indies cricketer can have the same first name" too far. Shannon? Really? It's too late Windies, you already have two Darrens in the side.

 

[Manee]

Damn, two back to back Tests and the majority of the third during my exam period. Bit annoying.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Is Sky showing the Loins game, btw?

 

[weeman27bob]

I'd love for Pollard to somehow swindle his way into the test team at some point. Mainly because the mental breakdown it would cause Howe would be mighty impressive.

Compton to get out for a single digit score in the Lions game, ruining any chance of him ever getting picked.

 

[Howe_zat]

Nah, good for him if he actually goes and becomes a good player. What irritates me to no end is how overrated he is in ODI/T20 based on some IPL swatting.

 

[NUFAN]

Bopara really is in a lose-lose situation here. If he plays and does well, everyone will say that he's done well against WI in the past and it means nothing as he can't handle the pressure of better teams. If he does poorly, it's likely to be the end of his Test career, if he does play this series.


Windies were quite good in the series against Australia but the batsman Chanderpaul aside, don't have the best techniques imaginable to counteract England's very good attack. I'm not sure exactly where Samuels is going to fit into things as I would keep Deonarine, so Samuels might have to bat 3, and the vice captain Edwards will need to open.

I'm looking forward to watching Roach in England, I really hope he does well.

 

[weeman27bob]

Nah, good for him if he actually goes and becomes a good player. What irritates me to no end is how overrated he is in ODI/T20 based on some IPL swatting.

I think his ODI performances against Australia showed that if he really puts his mind to it, he can be a good player, but yes, his impact is probably overvalued.

 

[Howe_zat]

Yeah, he's made progress lately. Not denying him that.

 

[Jarquis]

No Carlton Baugh?

 

[Spikey]

dead i'm afraid

 

[Spikey]

ICC Test rankings: Shivnarine Chanderpaul No. 1 Test batsman after three years | Cricket News | Cricinfo ICC Site | ESPN Cricinfo

yeeeees

 

[FBU]

I reckon that this team would do a good job.

Gayle, Edwards, DMBravo, Sarwan, Chanderpaul, Nash, Ramdin, JTaylor, Rampaul, Shillingford, Roach

 

[Viscount Tom]

But who captains that team?

Another point worth mentioning is that JTaylor hasn't played for some time isn't likely to so in the future either as far as I know.

also to tell the truth I'm no convinced Gayle would make much difference to the scoreboards in the Tet series either.