(Trinidad Express)-Alzarri Joseph and Shamar Joseph could both be back in West Indies colours for next year’s T20 World Cup.
The fast bowlers, key members of the West Indies pace attack, missed the Caribbean side’s recent red and white-ball tours of India, Bangladesh and New Zealand because of injury. Alzarri Joseph has been sidelined by a lower back injury, while Shamar Joseph is suffering from a shoulder problem.
However, giving an update on the pair during the Mason and Guest programme on the Voice of Barbados, Tuesday, CEO of Cricket West Indies, Chris Dehring said both players were making progress.
”Alzarri is a little better than Shamar,” Dehring said. “Alzarri is back training and hopefully he will be back to full fitness. He’s looking much better.”
Dehring added that, “there’s a strong possibility they both will be available for the World Cup but there’s a stronger possibility for Alzarri than Shamar. But we’re hopeful. They’re both working, they are getting treated and building up strength, doing some fitness work, so hopefully they’ll both be available.”
Next year’s World Cup will be hosted by India and Sri Lanka from February 7 to March 8. West Indies are in Group C along with England, Bangladesh, Nepal and Italy.
Breakout League window
Dehring also commented on CWI’s decision to put a hold on the Breakout T20 League which had been scheduled for this country in January.
In a release last week, CWI had said: “Given the increasingly congested international and domestic cricket calendar, coupled with preparations for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, it has been determined that the tournament cannot be staged in its originally planned window,”
Tuesday, Dehring said of the tournament that was staged for the first time this year: “It’s going to be happening, we just have to find the right window.” And he further expanded on the reasons for the delay.
“We were quite frankly trying to force cricket into January but it was not the right time. It’s become an extremely chaotic calendar and between the Under-19 World Cup and the T20 World Cup in India in February and an Afghanistan tour, we decided that it’s just not the best window, even though that was the only kind of window immediately available. (We’ll) try and play it later on down the year in a more appropriate time slot when you’re going to have more players available that you want to put through that ringer,” he said.
Money management crucial
The CEO also pointed to the need for cash-strapped CWI to carefully use its funds.
“It doesn’t make sense to play it (Breakout League) and waste resources that you don’t have to waste, when you can deploy those resources elsewhere in preparation for an Under-19 World Cup; in preparation for a T20 World Cup…
“This (2026) is a tough year for us… We’re hosting Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Pakistan on international tours. We rely on those international tours to generate revenue that then funds everything else for the fiscal year. And of course, those tours are not money-spinners. Those television markets are moribund really, probably worse than the Caribbean’s, so we have to be very careful about how we spend the resources this fiscal year whilst we put in place things for the future.”
