Windies players to make themselves available, says Bravo

Johannesburg, Oct.6 (ANI): West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo has said that all star players of the West Indies will make themselves available for national duty soon.

Speaking from his home in Trinidad, Bravo told the Sydney Morning Herald: " We are looking forward to getting back playing international cricket."

It is the clearest statement of intent to come out of the Caribbean in months, and a positive sign for the Australian summer.

Bravo is one of a group of leading players who went on strike in July and have not been selected for the West Indies since.

The dispute between the West Indies Players' Association and the cricket board is unresolved but Bravo, a vocal critic of the board's treatment of its players in the past, held out an olive branch by confirming that he and his teammates would show their commitment by fronting up for a regional tournament in Guyana later this month.

"We have our domestic competition starting in October, that's when we come back from the [Twenty20] Champions League. We will be taking part in it. All of us are going to be available for selection to go to Australia," Bravo said before jetting off to India to represent Trinidad and Tobago against domestic sides including Victoria and NSW.

"Hopefully, they will select the best squad and we will get our opportunity again to represent the West Indies," he added.

When the West Indies last toured Australia in 2005, Bravo revealed his all-round talent with a century in Hobart and a haul of 6-84 in the Adelaide Test. Four years on, he is among the most sought-after players on the fast-evolving Twenty20 circuit, having signed a contract with Victoria for this summer's Twenty20 Big Bash to go with his lucrative Indian Premier League deal with the Mumbai Indians.

Bravo, who turns 26 this week, says he derived no satisfaction from watching a second-string West Indies team bow out of the Champions Trophy with three honourable losses while he and others such as Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul cooled their heels at home, nor from seeing Floyd Reifer's inexperienced team thrashed by Bangladesh in Test and ODI series at the height of the acrimony.

"It wasn't a great feeling, but as a team we came up with a decision and we stand by our decision," he said. (ANI)