Browne to lead in warm-up match

Patrick Browne, the Barbados wicketkeeper, will captain a young Guyana President's Select XI against the touring Sri Lankans in a three-day warm up match at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence from Monday.

Browne, 26, was selected as Denesh Ramdin's back-up during the recent one-day series in South Africa and played as a batsman in the last three ODIs, scoring an unbeaten 49 in the fifth match from No.3. Browne has nine fifties in 46 first-class matches at an average of 21.64.

The 12-man squad chosen is a young one and it includes six Guyanese, four Barbadians and a player each from Nevis and Jamaica. Apart from Browne only Jason Haynes, the left-handed opener from Barbados, is over 25. Haynes has notched up a century and two fifties from 14 first-class games.

Four current West Indies Under-19 players were also chosen - Sharmarh Brooks, the captain, Steven Jacobs, the vice-captain, Kieran Powell, the Nevisian opener, and Jason Dawes, the Jamaican fast bowler. Brooks and Jacobs have already played at the first-class level.

Reon King, the former West Indies fast bowler, will coach the side. The game had been scheduled to be played at Bourda but heavy rain in Georgetown forced the board to shift the match to Providence, the venue for the first Test against Sri Lanka on Saturday.

Sri Lanka, who arrived in Guyana on March 13, will be looking for their first Test win on Caribbean soil.

Select Squad Patrick Browne (capt, wk), Kieran Powell, Jason Haynes, Steven Jacobs, Shamarh Brooks, Krishna Deosarran, Shemroy Barrington, Christopher Barnwell, Davendra Bishoo, Kemar Roach, Jason Dawes, Rajendra Chandrika.