Big names of Windies cricket set their sights on a return in the ODI team

It has been a long time since we saw the likes of Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo donning the Caribbean colours in ODI cricket. It seems the happy days are back for the star players as Cricket West Indies (CWI) has finally agreed to support them. Gayle, Bravo and Pollard could be called up into the ODI side for the series against England next month.

Windies board has often ignored the selection of these cricketers along with the likes of off-spinner Sunil Narine and leg-spinner Samuel Badree for the ODI team. The board’s argument is that these player do not participate in the domestic 50-over competition and they cannot pick a player based on their reputation and ignore those who are doing well in the domestic List A competitions.

Important to have the best team

It is very important for West Indies to regroup their squad immediately before the England series, which is considered as a crucial series for them to qualify directly for the World Cup 2019.

CWI chief executive Johnny Grave in a statement said: “The agreement forms part of a wider strategy to be more inclusive and to improve player relations aimed at re-engaging all players within our system so that they can perform at their best for the Windies teams.”

“It is crucial that we can have our best performing Windies players available for selection in these important games,” he added.

World Cup 2019 chances

West Indies are currently ranked ninth in the current ICC ODI rankings. It is highly unlikely that they would make it to the World Cup 2019 through automatic selection. However, they could hope to make a dream entry in the big event with the return of the big names in the ODI series against a strong English side in August.

“We recognise that it is highly unlikely that we will now automatically qualify for the 2019 World Cup, so whilst the qualifying tournament has yet to be confirmed by ICC, we may only have eight ODIs against England and New Zealand in the next six months to prepare,” concluded the CWI chief executive.