Bravo, Pollard absent as Windies begin training camp in Cardiff

CARDIFF, Wales, CMC – West Indies will fine-tune their preparations for the Champions Trophy when they open a training camp here today, their second in as many weeks.

The regional side arrived in the United Kingdom yesterday and took a three-hour drive to the Welsh capital where they were welcomed by lovely sunny weather.

Showers have been forecast for the next few days, however.

The squad will have their first training session today at 2 pm (9 am Eastern Caribbean time) at the SWALEC Stadium.

Captain Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, both of whom contested the final of the Indian Premier League yesterday, are expected to join the camp shortly along with off-spinner Sunil Narine who played in the final of the national Twenty20 Champ-ionship in Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday night.

West Indies flew out of the Caribbean on Saturday evening following a five-day camp at the 3W’s Oval at the UWI Cave Hill Campus in Barbados.

They will play two official warm-up matches, against Australia here next Saturday and Sri Lanka three days later in Birmingham, before opening their campaign in Group B of the competition against Pakistan on June 6 at the Oval in London.

West Indies will also face reigning World champions India and South Africa, in the preliminary round.

SQUAD – Dwayne Bravo (captain), Denesh Ramdin (vice-captain), Tino Best, Darren Bravo, Johnson Charles, Chris Gayle, Jason Holder, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Darren Sammy, Marlon Samuels, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Devon Smith.