Sport
West Indies begin preparations for ICC Champions Trophy
West Indies will kick off their preparation for next month’s Champions Trophy in England, when they embark on a five-day camp at the High Performance Center at the 3Ws Oval starting today.
The sessions will be overseen by West Indies head coach Ottis Gibson with assistant coach Tony Radford and the High Performance Center’s Andre Coley, also involved in the squad’s preparation.
Players were expected to begin arriving last night, with the remainder coming today.
Players currently involved in the Indian Premier League will miss the camp, as will Ramnaresh Sarwan who is on contract with English County side Leicestershire.
Stroke-maker Marlon Samuels, who returned home from the Indian Premier League with a groin strain last month, has recovered and will take his place at the camp.
The Indian Premier League-based players, along with Sarwan, are expected to be available for the second camp in Cardiff in Wales where the West Indies squad will fine tune their preparations for the June 6- June 23 tournament.
The West Indies team, who are scheduled to fly out of the Caribbean on Saturday, will play two official warm-up games following the Wales camp. They face Australia in a day/night affair in Cardiff on June 1 before taking on Sri Lanka at Edgbaston three days later.
The West Indies will do battle in Group B of the tournament alongside Pakistan, South Africa and India, with Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand and the hosts, England, comprising Group A.
West Indies open against Pakistan at the Oval on June 7 and follow up against India four days later at the same venue. They travel to Cardiff for their final preliminary round game against South Africa on June 14.
The last time the Champions Trophy was played in England in 2004, the West Indies beat England in a thrilling final at the Oval. -(CMC)