Sarwan in Guyana squad to face Ja

Thursday, February 23, 2012

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — Enigmatic West Indies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan has made a surprise return to the Guyana squad for their clash with Jamaica in the fourth round of the Regional Four-Day Championship starting tomorrow.

Sarwan, who has been in and out of the regional squad in recent times through injury, was named in a 13-man squad that will be led by West Indies ‘A’ team left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul.

The 31-year-old righthander’s return was somewhat unexpected, especially after he found himself at the centre of controversy earlier this month.

Following the Interim Management Committee’s (IMC) takeover of cricket administration here, Sarwan was named captain of the squad for the opening-round game against Leeward Islands in Windsor Park in Dominica.

The Guyana Cricket Board, at loggerheads with the IMC over who are the legitimate cricket authorities in the country, also named a squad but with veteran West Indies left-hander Shiv Chanderpaul at the helm.

The move resulted in chaos and saw Sarwan make himself unavailable for selection.

He subsequently, however, made himself available and has now been included in the trip to Antigua for the day/night encounter against the four-time defending champions who are unbeaten in three outings.

Only last week, English County Leicestershire announced it had signed Sarwan for their entire season, and said the player would join them on their pre-season tour of the Caribbean in March before flying back to England.

Sarwan has not played for Guyana in almost a year after he opted out of the Super50 tournament last October and was then axed for their Caribbean Twenty20 campaign last month.

Meanwhile, opener Trevon Griffith has joined Sarwan as the only changes to Guyana’s for the weekend game, with Sewnarine Chattergoon and Rajendra Chandrika dropped.

Guyana are second in the standings on 24 points after winning two of their three games in the competition.

SQUAD — Veerasammy Permaul (captain), Leon Johnson, Assad Fudadin, Trevon Griffith, Narsingh Deonarine, Ramnaresh Sarwan,

Royston Crandon, Christopher Barnwell, Derwin Christian, Brandon Bess, Devendra Bishoo, Ronsford Beaton and Chanderpaul Hemraj.