West Indies call in seven back-up players

West Indies have brought in seven players from outside their one-day squad as cover for their warm-up limited-overs match against the England Lions at Worcester on Thursday. Ruel Brathwaite, Mali Richards, Esuan Crandon, Kirk Edwards and Andrew Richardson have joined the group, while Test players Sylvester Joseph and Jerome Taylor have also been temporarily retained.

Ravi Rampaul will miss Thursday's game as he tries to overcome the groin tear he suffered in the warm-up match ahead of the third Test. Corey Collymore, who was not in the one-day squad, had stayed with the side as cover but will not play due to a niggling injury. Dwayne Smith, Lendl Simmons and Austin Richards Jr, who were selected in the original limited-overs outfit, are not expected in England until Thursday morning and will join the rest of the team in Derby.

Despite the significant changes, there has been no official alteration to West Indies' 14-man group for their Twenty20 and one-day fixtures in England and Ireland. The seven extra players will leave the squad on Friday, after the Worcester game.

Brathwaite, a student at Loughborough, one of the MCC's six University Centres of Cricketing Excellence, impressed when playing for MCC against West Indians at Durham earlier in the month. On Tuesday, he helped Loughborough to win the British Universities Sports Association Cricket Championship.

He joins Crandon, a fast bowler from Guyana; Edwards, a batsman from Barbados; Richardson, a Jamaican fast bowler; and Richards, the allrounder and son of Sir Viv Richards, in possibly facing the England Lions. "I am delighted to be selected for the West Indies one-day squad," Braithwaite said. "The MCC Universities programme has been crucial to my development and I am happy to be improving both my cricket and academic skills at Loughborough."