Two former West Indies captains will join the team’s preparation ahead of the upcoming MyTeam11 Test Series against India. Brian Lara, one of the greatest batsmen of all-time, and Ramnaresh Sarwan, who was one the leading players of his generation, will be part of the pre-series camp to be held in Antigua ahead of the first Test match against India.

They will share their immense knowledge, experience and expertise with the members of the 13-member squad ahead of the MyTeam11 Series, which is co-sponsored by Skoda and KEI.

West Indies and India will play two Tests – from August 22 to 26 at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground in North Sound, Antigua; and from August 30 to September 3 at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica.

Jimmy Adams, Cricket West Indies’ (CWI) Director of Cricket, was grateful to Lara and Sarwan for coming on board and offering their time to interact with the young batsmen as they get ready for this crucial two-match series – which will signal the start of the new ICC World Test Championship (WTC) for both teams.

“We have some good young batsman in the team who we believe will form the future of West Indies cricket. We saw some very good signs of development earlier this year in the Test matches when we played so very well to beat England and we want to see them grow and become outstanding players for the West Indies,” Adams said.

“We have taken the step to have Brian and ‘Ronnie’ work with these players, who have demonstrated a will to learn and succeed. We know they still have the passion and love for West Indies cricket and are eager to assist and share their information with the present generation.”

Lara, 50, is the leading runscorer in West Indies history with 11,953 runs in 131 Test matches. His mammoth 400 not out against England in in Antigua in 2004 remains the only occasion a batsman has reached a quadruple century in Test history. He also holds the record for the highest first-class score of all time – the monumental 501 not out for Warwickshire in the English Country Championship.

Sarwan, 39, scored 5,842 runs in 87 Test matches, including 15 centuries, with a top score of 291 against England in Barbados a decade ago. In One-Day Internationals, he also scored 5,845 runs in 169 innings.

West Indies and India met in Test cricket for the first time in 1948. They have played 96 times – West Indies have won 30 times, India have won 20 and 46 matches have been drawn. West Indies have contested 542 Test matches in their 91-year Test history. They have won 173 times, lost 193, drawn 175 and tied once – the famous match against Australia in December 1960 at the Gabba.

FULL MATCH SCHEDULE

Sat, Aug 3: 1st MyTeam11 T20I– India won by 4 wickets – Broward County Stadium, United States 

Sun, Aug 4: 2nd MyTeam11 T20I – India won by 22 runs (DLS Method) – Broward County Stadium

Tue, Aug 6: 3rd MyTeam11 T20I – India won by 7 wickets – Guyana National Stadium, Guyana

Thu, Aug 8: 1st MyTeam11 ODI – No result – Guyana National Stadium

Sun, Aug 11: 2nd MyTeam11 ODI – India won by 59 runs (DLS Method) – Queen’s Park Oval, Trinidad

Wed, Aug 14: 3rd MyTeam11 ODI – India won by 6 wickets (DLS Method) – Queen’s Park Oval

Sat, Aug 17 to Mon, Aug 19: Tour Match – Coolidge Cricket Ground, Antigua (9:30 am daily)

Thu, Aug 22 to Mon, Aug 26: 1st MyTeam11 Test – Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground, Antigua (9:30 am daily)

Fri, Aug 30 to Tue, Sep 3: 2nd MyTeam11 Test – Sabina Park, Jamaica (9:30 am daily)

ABOUT THE ICC WORLD TEST CHAMPIONSHIP

The ICC World Test Championship (WTC) has been introduced by the ICC, the sport’s World governing body, to give greater context to the longest format of the game and will be played over the next two years. It will feature nine of the 12 Test-playing nations, each of whom will play a Test series against six of the other eight teams.

Each series will consist of between two and five matches, so although all teams will play six series (three at home and three away), they will not play the same number of Tests. Each team will be able to score a maximum of 120 points from each series and the two teams with the most points at the end of the league stage will contest the Final in June 2021 in England to crown the first ever World Test champion.

Some of the nine WTC teams will play additional Test matches during this period which are not part of the Championship. They are, however, part of the ICC Future Tours Programme for 2018 to 2023 and are designed mainly to give matches to the three Test-playing sides – Afghanistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe – not taking part in this competition.

-CWI