Hetmyer dropped from West Indies World Cup squad over missed flight

West Indies have dropped Shimron Hetmyer from their men's T20 World Cup squad after he missed a "rescheduled" flight to Australia. CWI said the decision had been taken "unanimously" by the selection panel, which also decided to name Shamarh Brooks as Hetmyer's replacement.

The rest of the West Indies squad had flown to Australia in different groups following the conclusion of the CPL on Saturday. When asked about the situation, the white-ball captain Nicholas Pooran said, "To be honest, that's not my focus at the moment. A decision has been made, there's consequences for your action. At the moment just want to focus on why we're here and how we're going to achieve our goals."

Hetmyer, who was captain of Guyana Amazon Warriors, was originally set to fly out on October 1, but wanted his flight rescheduled due to personal reasons. CWI booked him on a flight that would leave on Monday, only for Hetmyer to later tell Jimmy Adams, CWI's director of cricket, that he would not be travelling.

"The decision by the CWI selection panel was made as Shimron Hetmyer missed his re-scheduled flight to Australia, which had been changed from Saturday 1 October at his request, due to family reasons," CWI said in a media statement. "With flight availability a real challenge, a seat was found for him to leave Guyana today, Monday 3 October, meaning he would unfortunately miss the 1st T20 International (T20I) against Australia on Wednesday 5 October at the Metricon Stadium. This morning, Mr Hetmyer, informed the Director of Cricket that he would not be able to get to the airport in time for his flight this afternoon to New York."

Adams said that Hetmyer had been informed that "any further delay" in travel would cost him his World Cup spot.

"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," Adams said. "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."

Pooran admitted that Hetmyer was a big loss. "Obviously, yeah, we plan with him but unfortunately he's not here and we have to plan differently now."

Brooks will fly out later this week but will not feature in the two-match T20I series against Australia. He will instead join the World Cup squad directly in Melbourne, where they will start their campaign in the qualifying round. West Indies are placed in Group B, alongside Ireland, Scotland and Zimbabwe with the top two teams progressing to the Super 12s.

Brooks and Hetmyer were pitted against each other in CPL playoffs last week. It was Brooks' unbeaten 109 in Qualifier 2 that helped Jamaica Tallawahs make the final, which they went on to win against Barbados Royals.