West Indies have axed Shimron Hetmyer from their T20 World Cup squad after he missed a rescheduled flight to Australia, with Shamarh Brooks named as his replacement.
The West Indies squad have been flying out separately following the end of the Caribbean Premier League and Hetmyer was originally due to take a flight on October 1. However, the 25-year-old asked for the flight to be rescheduled due to family reasons and a new flight was booked for October 3.
Cricket West Indies (CWI) state that Hetmyer then informed director of cricket Jimmy Adams the morning of his flight that "he would not be able to get to the airport in time", having previously been informed that "any further delays" would lead to him being dropped.
In a statement, Adams said: "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."
Brooks enjoyed an impressive Caribbean Premier League campaign with eventual champions Jamaica Tallawahs, scoring 241 runs at an average of 40.16 and a strike rate of 153.50.
"Shamarh has been a part of our recent T20 International squads and delivered strong performances in the latter stages of the recently concluded CPL," Adams added. "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."
West Indies are set to play warm-up games against Australia, the United Arab Emirates and the Netherlands before their World Cup campaign begins. Their tournament gets underway on October 17 with a first round group stage game against Scotland in Hobart.
They are part of Group B along with Scotland, Ireland and Zimbabwe, with the top two teams from that group set to advance to the Super 12 stage. Namibia, the Netherlands, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates make up Group A.
