Shimron Hetmyer replaced by Shamarch Brooks in T20 WC squad after he misses new flight

St. John’s [Antigua]October 4 (ANI): Cricket West Indies (CWI) has named Shamarch Brooks as a replacement for middle-order batsman Shimron Hetmyer in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 squad after the latter missed his scheduled flight to Australia.

“Cricket West Indies (CWI) has today informed the International Cricket Council (ICC) that Shamarkh Brooks has replaced Shimran Hetmyer in the West Indies squad for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup in Australia,” CWI said in a statement.

The CWI selection panel’s decision came as Shimran Hetmyer missed his new flight to Australia, which was rescheduled from Saturday, October 1 at his request due to family reasons. With flight availability becoming a real issue, he has been booked to fly out of Guyana today, Monday 3rd October, meaning he will unfortunately miss the 1st T20 International (T20I) against Australia on Wednesday, October 5 at Metricon Stadium.

Hetmyer informed Director of Cricket Jimmy Adams this morning that he would not be able to make it to the airport for his flight to New York this afternoon.

“This afternoon we have informed the CWI Board of Directors that the selection panel has unanimously decided to replace Shimran Hetmyer with Shamarch Brooks in our T20 World Cup squad. Although we changed Shimran’s flight from Saturday to Monday due to family reasons, it was understood, he said, that in the event of further delays and problems with his trip to Australia, we would have no choice but to replace him in the team as we are not prepared to put jeopardizing the team’s ability to prepare for this extremely important global event,” he said. Adams.

“Shamarkh was part of our recent T20 International squads and performed well in the latter stages of the recently concluded CPL. He will be flying out to Australia this week as soon as possible and I wish him and the entire team all the best for the tournament,” he added.

West Indies will begin their T20 World Cup campaign against Scotland from October 17. They are in Group B with Scotland, Zimbabwe and Ireland. Windies were knocked out of the tournament in the Super 12 phase last year.

West Indies: Nicolas Pouran (c), Rowman Powell, Yannick Kariya, Johnson Charles, Sheldon Cottrell, Jason Holder, Akeal Hossain, Alzarri Joseph, Brendan King, Evin Lewis, Kyle Myers, Obed McCoy, Rayman Rafer, Odin Smith, Shamar Brooks. (ANI)