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Lara among 20 for home series

Brian Lara has been named in a 20-man West Indies training squad to prepare for the home series against Zimbabwe and Pakistan.

A newspaper report in Lara's native Trinidad and Tobago had said he was considering taking three months away from the game after resigning from the post of West Indies captain last week. He, however, is one of 15 players retained from the ill-starred tour of New Zealand where the West Indies lost both Tests and all five limited-overs internationals. He is expected to take part in the training camp which has been switched to Jamaica from March 4 to 12.

There are just two new faces to the squad from which West Indies will pick their final 13 for the two Tests against the Zimbabweans in Trinidad from March 16 to 20, and Jamaica from March 23 to 27.

Guyanese leg-spin bowler Mahendra Nagamootoo, whose 31 wickets were the most in this year's Busta Cup, West Indies' first-class championship that ended on Monday, is one of them.

The other is Leeward Islands batsman Runako Morton, who scored 356 runs at an average of 35.60 in seven Busta Cup matches this season.

Long-standing fast bowler Curtly Ambrose, who was omitted from the New Zealand touring party because of poor form and fitness, has been recalled to the side, along with fellow fast bowler Nixon McLean.

Since attendance at the camp is mandatory, Wavel Hinds, Runako Morton and Ricardo Powell have been replaced in the West Indies Cricket Board XI side by Barbados captain Philo Wallace, Guyana's Keith Semple and Trinidad and Tobago's Denis Rampersad.

The training squad:
Jimmy Adams, Curtly Ambrose, Sherwin Campbell, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Pedro Collins, Mervyn Dillon, Chris Gayle, Adrian Griffith, Wavel Hinds, Reon King, Ridley Jacobs, Brian Lara, Nixon McLean, Runako Morton, Mahendra Nagamootoo, Nehemiah Perry, Ricardo Powell, Dinanath Ramnarine, Franklyn Rose, Courtney Walsh.