Narine opts out

Narine opts out
Associated Press / Aijaz Rahi

West Indies mystery-off spinner Sunil Narine has opted out of the upcoming World Cup in New Zealand and Australia.

His replacement is Barbadian Carlos Braithwaite, who was recently in South Africa with the West Indies quad.

The replacement was approved by the International Cricket Council (ICC) since all countries taking part in the tournament have already named their 15 players and Narine dropped out of the tournament, stating that he was not ready to return to international cricket, after re-working on his bowling action.

The right-arm off-spinner was called for a suspect bowling action during the 2014 Champions League tournament in India and has missed international ply since then.

He has been working on his action and although he starred for the T&T Red Force, claiming six wickets for nine runs in the finals of the Nagico Cup, he explained that he was not up to full confidence.

West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Operations Manager Ronald Holder said the West Indies will not go into the tournaments with a player short.

Meanwhile, West Indies will go into the World Cup later this month stuck at number eight in the International Cricket Council (ICC) one-day rankings.

In the latest rankings released last week, the Caribbean side was still lying in the bottom end of the standings on 94 ratings points but just two behind Pakistan.

Their position comes on the backs of a heavy 4-1 hammering at the hands of South Africa in the recent one-day series in South Africa.

Their last one-day series prior to South Africa tour was the ill-fated campaign in India which was abandoned after four matches, after players quit because of unresolved contracts dispute with their union, WIPA. They were trailing 2-1 in that five match series.

West Indies will start their campaign on Feb. 16 against Ireland in Group B, which comprises the likes of defending champions India, South Africa, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and United Arab Emirates. The tournament runs from Feb. 14 to March 28.