WI suffer Barath, Baugh blow ahead of World Cup

New Delhi, Feb 18 (PTI) Barely less than a week beforethey kick off their World Cup campaign, former champions WestIndies became the latest team to be hit by injury curse whenopener Adrain Barath and wicket-keeper Carlton Baugh weretoday ruled out of the mega-event starting tomorrow in Dhaka.

The Caribbean duo thus brought to 10 the number ofplayers forced to withdraw due to injuries ahead of cricket''sshowpiece event.

"Medical specialists have determined that in both casesthe players will not be able to resume training for two tothree weeks," the West Indies Cricket Board said in astatement.

Both the players were suffering from hamstring injuriesand had scans yesterday to asses the graveness of theirproblems.

Baugh was forced to cut short his 29-run innings againstSri Lanka in losing cause during West Indies'' second warm-upmatch at Colombo while the exciting 20-year-old Barath wasforced to stay indoors during both their preparatory ties.

The West Indies have named uncapped Barbados batsmanKirk Edwards and Antigua wicket-keeper Devon Thomas as thereplacement for the two and are awaiting International CricketCouncil''s approval to incorporate the players in the mixbefore their opening fixture against South Africa here onFebruary 24.

So far, ICC has already approved eight replacementplayers for various teams participating in the World Cup. PTISNK SSC