Nevis plagued by injuries ahead of opening match

Nevis leave for Antigua today with an injury-cloud hanging over several of their players ahead of their first Stanford 20/20 match against Montserrat on Friday, February 8.

Batsmen Shervin Woodley and Marvin Hamilton, along with the 17-year-old seamer Nelson Boland are set to take MRI [Magnetic Resonance Imaging] scans with injuries to their rotary cuff, wrist, and back respectively. The other injury concerns are allrounders Ian Byron and Daynason Browne, both of whom have sore ankles.

Virgil Browne, the team's physio, while talking to Caribbean Media Corporation, attributed the injuries to "young bodies adjusting to the rigours of the 9am to 5pm routine" and "given another couple of weeks, the adjustment should be complete."

Meanwhile, the team's coach and former captain, Stuart Williams, has called for patience with his young outfit. "We were the last of the Pro teams [in the Stanford 20/20] established [on] December 1, 2007, and have been in training for only two months," he said. "We are missing eight experienced players from the 2006 team and have half-a-dozen teenagers in our side. I see it as a development team."

The experienced hands in the 16-man squad are captain Joel Simmonds (32), Woodley (31), Runako Morton (29) and Tino Willett, who turns 25 today. Nevis, with an average age of 22.5, have one of the youngest teams in the competition, but Williams remained confident, saying that his team was "ready and raring to go".

Squad:
Joel Simmonds, Tonito Willett, Marvin Hamilton, Runako Morton, Akito Willett, Javier Liburd, Sherwin Woodley, Kejel Tyson, Ian Byron, Jurnel Turner, Carlon Smithen, Nelson Boland, Trevier Smithen, Junie Williams, Jamoy Pemberton, Daynason Browne.