Nurse not what doctor ordered

The plan to draft Barbadian allrounder Vonrick Nurse into the West Indies Under-19 team has fallen through because Nurse is unable to bowl.

On Friday manager Jeff Broomes said his squad was having difficulty trying to find replacements for the injured fast bowling pair of Rayon Thomas and Andrew Richardson. He tried to call up the London-based Nurse to fill the vacancies.

But Nurse, who is now playing for BOCA (Barbados Overseas Cricket Association) here, could not be called up as he is awaiting an knee operation and cannot bowl.

We wanted back-up bowlers, but now we have learnt that Vonrick cannot bowl, said Broomes as he watched Birmingham and Nottingham play the Caribbean final at Milton Keynes, yesterday.

We brought four medium-fast bowlers on this tour and now two are out. The two who were injured need rest and obviously cannot play. We'll have to fight through.

Richardson, a tall Jamaican was again hit by the stress fracture of the back which prevented him from playing in the Busta Cup earlier this year. Thomas, a Guyanese, has a stress fracture of the foot. The other two seamers are Jamaican Jermaine Lawson and Vincentian leftarmer Kenroy Peters. Two other players nursing leg injuries are Barbadian Patrick Browne and Narsingh Deonarine, the left-hander from Guyana, have recovered well.

Broomes said he was reluctant to call-up anyone from the West Indies Under-19 competition presently being played in Guyana as those players were competing for a place on the West Indies team for the Youth World Cup in New Zealand in January.

He said apart from the injuries, the camp was still upbeat and the players were looking forward the upcoming three-day games. The third Test is at Chester-le-Street at the end of the month.

The guys are quite upbeat and the mood is fantastic, Broomes said. They are in a positive frame of mind and all has been working well.

In the last Test which ended on Saturday over 1400 runs were scored for 21 wickets and Broomes added that his side was never in any trouble, even though England pushed for a win on the final day.

The man of the tour so far has been Devon Smith, the small Grenadian opener, who yesterday signed a new equipment contract with Gunn & Moore. Smith made 144 in the Trent Bridge game, to follow up his two half-centuries and century in the three One-Dayers.

He has been fantastic and played really responsibly, Broomes said of his vice-captain. The entire team has matured on this tour, and Devon has taken the lead.