WEST Indies Over-50 selectees will assemble in Trinidad and Tobago from January 13 for a series of trial matches to select the final touring party for the Over-50s Cricket World Cup scheduled for March in South Africa.

It is the second edition of the Over-50s Cricket World Cup and West Indies will be one of four teams to make their first appearance.
The players invited to form the historic first West Indies Over-50s team are eager to prove themselves after their previous trial matches were severely affected by bad weather in Fort Lauderdale last November.

After the disappointment in Florida, the organisers were forced to arrange fresh trial matches that should give the players enough time to prove their readiness and to impress the watchful selectors.
The 18 West Indies selectees will be joined by four Trinidad and Tobago Over-50 players for their first match on Monday January 13 at the National Cricket Centre (NCC) in Balmain Couva.

The second match will be played against a star-studded Clarke Road United Masters team featuring some former Trinidad and Tobago senior and junior national players the following day at the same venue while on Wednesday the World Cup-bound players will turn their attention to NAS Masters also at NCC.

The final match which will also test the fitness levels of the players will be played on Thursday at the historic Queen’s Park Oval against the home team the Queen’s Park Masters.

All matches will be 45 overs per side and will be played with Cricket West Indies (CWI)-approved coloured clothing without the official West Indies Cricket Teams’ logo since the World Cup is not an ICC’s event.

However, the Regional side received the blessings of Ricky Skerritt, president of CWI. He wished the team well and applauded the work of the Local Organising Committee.
Skerritt wrote in the pre-tournament magazine, “Although CWI’s resources are now more focussed on developing younger players, we commend any project that seeks to directly engage past regional players in cricket-related activity.”

West Indies are in Group B of the tournament which is set for March 11 to 24 in Cape Town, South Africa. Other debutants are India, Namibia and Zimbabwe taking the total number of teams to 12, compared to eight in 2018 when Australia won the inaugural tournament at home in Sydney.

Group A comprises England, Namibia, Pakistan, India, South Africa and Wales while Group B will have Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and West Indies.

West Indies selectees are: Virgil Gossai, Hafiz Mohamed, Sudesh Dhaniram, Imtiaz Rick Ali, Julian Charles, Lawrence Pooran, Zamin Amin, Curtis Richards, Fareed Hosein, Howard Jodhan, Krish Harricharan, Rajendra Sahadeo, Roy Singh, Azad Mohammed, Kenny Girdharry, Richard Seechan, Mark Audain and Ishwar Maraj.

The management team includes Guyanese cricket administrator, Raj Singh as Manager, businessman Dave Narine as Assistant Manager, Joseph ‘Reds’ Perreira as Public Relations Officer (PRO), John Ramsingh as the Media Officer, Rick Ali and Ian Allen.