Wait, what? West Indies' Shimron Hetmyer dropped from T20 WC squad for missing flight to Australia

Ahead of the T20 World Cup, ShimronHetmyer has lost his place in the two-time winners West Indies squad for the marquee tournament in Australia. The power-hitter had asked Cricket West Indies (CWI) to reschedule his flight to Australia, due to personal reasons. While the board agreed and rescheduled his departure from October 1 to October 03, the swashbuckling left-hander could still not make it on time to board the flight and, hence, it led to his ouster from the main squad.

Hetmyer had informed CWI's Director of Cricket, Jimmy Adams, on Monday that he will not be able to reach the airport in time for his flight to New York. Hence, he got dropped with immediate effect as the CWI had already conveyed to him that any further delay, after October 03, would lead to him missing the marquee event Down Under. It is to be noted that Nicholas Pooran-led Windies will play the qualifiers, starting on October 16, before the main draw of the ICC event kicks off on October 22. He has been replaced by Shamarh Brooks, who has been rewarded for his strong performances in the latter stages of recently-concluded CPL 2022.

“This afternoon we informed the CWI Board of Directors that the Selection Panel had unanimously decided to replace Shimron Hetmyer with Shamarh Brooks in our T20 World Cup squad. Whilst we changed Shimron’s flight from Saturday to Monday due to family reasons, it was made clear to him that if there were any further delays and issues with his travel to Australia then we would have no choice but to replace him in the squad, as we are not prepared to compromise the team’s ability to prepare for this extremely important global event,"CWI said in a release.

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“Shamarh has been a part of our recent T20 International squads and delivered strong performances in the latter stages of the recently concluded CPL. He will fly out as soon as possible this week to Australia and I wish him and all the squad all the very best for the Tournament,"Adams mentioned.

West Indies squad for T20 World Cup:Nicholas Pooran (w/c), Rovman Powell (vc), Shamarh Brooks, Yannic Cariah, Johnson Charles (wk), Sheldon Cottrell, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Brandon King, Evin Lewis, Kyle Mayers, Obed Mccoy, Raymon Reifer, Odean Smith