In keeping with their policy of trying to expose more players deemed limited-overs specialists before next year's World Cup, the West Indies selectors yesterday summoned all-rounders Laurie Williams and Neil McGarrell for tomorrow's fifth and final Cable & Wireless One-day International against England in Trinidad.
The 27-year-old Williams, a hard-hitting batsman and tidy medium-pacer from Jamaica, earns a recall on the strength of his outstanding tour of South Africa with the West Indies A team late last year.
McGarrell is picked for the first time to show his mettle as an orthodox left-arm spinner and effective striker of the ball late in the innings.
It is the first time the 26-year-old Guyanese has been selected for any kind of West Indies team, but manager Clive Lloyd had for some time identified him as a player of promise.
He has been in outstanding form this season. In the President's Cup match against Trinidad and Tobago, he was instrumental in Guyana's victory with a ten-wicket match haul and he also had an innings haul of seven for 71 in a tour match against England.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who missed the last three matches because of illness, returns to the squad which will be without the rested Curtly Ambrose, Phil Simmons and Rawl Lewis.
The selection of Williams and McGarrell, which followed that of Keith Arthurton and Carl Tuckett for the St. Vincent leg last weekend, is a sign that the West Indies are following the lead of other countries by opting for players who are well suited to the shorter version of the game.
``We're trying to encourage our team to be as flexible as possible,'' chairman of selectors Wes Hall said yesterday.
``Test cricket and one-day cricket are different games. We need to look towards the day when West Indies teams will go overseas and can play a Test team and then can pull back and put in One-day specialists.''
Hall said it was important to have options, as was evidenced at Arnos Vale when West Indies captain Brian Lara could have called on four bowlers to make up the final 38 overs in Saturday's match in which the fast bowlers were not used after the first 15 overs.
``We have to look towards all-rounders. Any side that is going to win the World Cup in a year will have to be very deep in their batting and have reserves in their bowling,'' he said.
``What we need to do is to move away from the traditional six batsmen, a wicket-keeper and five bowlers.''
It was noteworthy that the West Indies used just two pacers in St. Vincent, a tactic that was justified in spite of some concerns.
Coach Malcolm Marshall defended the choice.
``We felt the conditions merited only two fast bowlers. The wicket was going to get slower and slower and the slower bowlers would have played a big part.
``In One-day cricket we need to get a better balance and more depth in our batting,'' he said. ``We're not as strong a unit as we were in the 70s and 80s. The time has come when we've got to start picking specialist One-day teams which we have done in this series.''
West Indies put behind them the disappointment of twice losing to England in the Sharjah Champions Cup by convincingly winning both matches over the weekend to move to an unbeatable 3-1 lead ahead of tomorrow's match.
Marshall felt, however, that the scoreline would have been 4-0 had it not been for some ``indifferent'' batting in the first match at Kensington Oval which England, defending an imposing total of 293, won by 16 runs.
He identified the change of players as one of the key differences between here and Sharjah.
He said the positive starts between Clayton Lambert and Philo Wallace, the West Indies' fielding and a couple of outstanding innings by Lara and vice-captain Carl Hooper also helped in the turnaround.
The 13 for tomorrow:
Brian Lara (captain), Clayton Lambert, Philo Wallace, Stuart Williams, Carl Hooper, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Keith Arthurton, Ridley Jacobs, Carl Tuckett, Laurie Williams, Neil McGarrell, Nixon McLean, Mervyn Dillon.