Shimron Hetmyer, Windies charismatic left-handed hitter, has been replaced in the West Indies team for the ICC T20 World Cup, which begins on October 16, as he missed the flight from Guyana to Australia.

Shamarh Brooks has taken the 25-year-position, old’s and Cricket West Indies (CWI) has notified the International Cricket Council (ICC) of the substitution. Hetmyer apparently failed to board his newly booked flight to Australia, which had been moved from October 1 to October 3 at his request.

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Two days later, he had a different flight from Guyana to New York scheduled. Hetmyer, however, alerted CWI director of cricket Jimmy Adams the morning of his scheduled departure that he would not be able to make it to the airport in time.

CWI took a stringent view and decided to replace Hetmyer.

“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 (October 1) at his request, due to family reasons. With flight availability a real challenge, a seat was found for him to leave Guyana today (Monday, October 3), meaning he would unfortunately miss the 1st T20 International against Australia on Wednesday (October 5) at the Metricon Stadium,” said a CWI statement.

“This morning (October 3), Mr. Hetmyer, informed the Director of Cricket (Jimmy Adams) that he would not be able to get to the airport in time for his flight this afternoon to New York,” added the CWI statement.

“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. 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,” said Adams.

Hetmyer’s replacement Brooks is no stranger to the West Indies team, playing for the side in all three international formats, including 11 T20Is, all in the last one year.

“Shamarh has been a part of our recent T20 International squads and delivered strong performances in the latter stages of the recently concluded CPL. He will fly out as soon as possible this week to Australia and I wish him and all the squad all the very best for the tournament (T20 World Cup),” added Adams.

The T20 World Cup first round grouping for West Indies includes matches against Scotland, Zimbabwe, and Ireland before a potential Super 12 round appearance.

West Indies will also compete in a two-match T20I series against Australia starting on October 5 before the T20 World Cup.

(inputs from IANS)