West Indian stars back in contention for Johnnie Walker ICC Super Series selection

High quality centuries from the bats of Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan on their return to the West Indian team against South Africa in Trinidad, have reinforced their case for inclusion in the Johnnie Walker ICC Super Series squads of 30 Test and ODI players to be announced next month.

Former West Indies captain and Johnnie Walker selector Clive Lloyd said that the return of the pair, along with opening batsman Chris Gayle and young all-rounder Dwayne Bravo allowed the selectors to choose from the widest array of talent outside Australia: "As a selection panel it's important to be able to pick from the best players in the game, so it's good to see the West Indies resolving their contractual issues and allowing all players to be available for the national team.

"Lara and Sarwan took the chance to impress, but for South Africa I thought the efforts of Makhaya Ntini in talking 13 wickets in the match were outstanding and Graeme Smith's century and astute captaincy were also top class. Add in the names of Chanderpaul, Hinds and Kallis from the first Test, and you can see how difficult the selectors' task will be."

Elsewhere, the recently concluded Test series between New Zealand and Sri Lanka has provided Johnnie Walker selectors Sir Richard Hadlee and Aravinda de Silva with some impressive performances to consider.

"One of the features for me was the way in which some of the younger players or those who had been struggling for a while turned in some strong performances in the series," said Sir Richard. "Hamish Marshall's hundred continued his fine form in the fist Test, Nathan Astle's hundred in the same match confirmed his quality and Brendon McCullum's 99 reinforced his strength as a wicketkeeper batsman.

"In the second Test, Chris Martin's six wickets were a welcome return to form, as was Lou Vincent's excellent double hundred which took the game away from Sri Lanka."

Despite the series loss, former champion batsman Aravinda de Silva was able to take a number of positives from the Sri Lankan players' showing: "Marvan (Atapattu) and Mahela (Jayawardene) batted wonderfully in the first match for their centuries, Samarweera did well in both games and Dilshan's fighting 73 in the second Test also deserves mention. On the bowling front, Malinga's fist five wicket haul in Test cricket was impressive and Chaminda Vaas reminded everyone of his qualities with six wickets in the second game," said Mr de Silva.

The Johnnie Walker ICC Super Series selection panel of former greats headed by ex-India captain Sunil Gavaskar as chairman includes Mike Atherton, Sir Richard Hadlee, Clive Lloyd, Jonty Rhodes and Aravinda de Silva. The panel will announce the initial squads of 30 players for the ICC World XI sides to play three One Day Internationals and a six-day Super Test against world champion Australia, in early May.

Combined prize money and match payments for the three match one-day series in Melbourne will be US$ 1.254 million, while the total money available for the six-day Super Test in Sydney will be US$ 1.390 million. The matches will be accorded official Test and ODI status.

The challenge awaiting the selected ICC World XI teams is to succeed where national sides have mostly failed. Australia has not lost a home Test series since 1993 and is undefeated in a One Day International series since 2002.