Deonarine among several Guyanese in USA training camp

Narsingh Deonarine, the 37-year-old former West Indies international remembered as the man who claimed Sachin Tendulkar’s wicket in his final Test innings, is on the cusp of making his USA debut after being named in a 44-man squad invited to Texas for a selection camp next month.

Deonarine apart, the other Guyanese are Gajanand Singh, Akshay Homraj, Trinson Carmichael and Dominique Rikhi.

All of them will be preparing for USA’s next ODI tri-series scheduled for March in Oman, their first ODIs in over a year.

Fast bowler Ali Khan, who has not played for USA since the country’s maiden ODI at WCL Division Two in April 2019, has also been included as administrators hope to convince him to come back into the national team fold following 18 months on the franchise cricket circuit.

Deonarine made his Test debut in 2005, but only played sporadically for West Indies across the next decade. The last of his 18 Tests came a month after dismissing Tendulkar in Mumbai, making 15 runs in two innings against New Zealand in December 2013.

His final ODI for West Indies came against South Africa in January 2015, while his first-class career dwindled out in November 2016. He subsequently migrated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he has spent the last several years playing club cricket.

He was hired to coach at Willow Academy as one of the earliest targets in the American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) recruitment initiative and is now qualified to play for USA via the three-year residency guideline laid out by the ICC.

Along with Deonarine are several other notable names with international links. Below is the full list of players.

USA training camp squad: Shaker Ahmed, Sachin Asokan, Fahad Babar, Rishi Bhardwaj, Adil Bhatti, Trinson Carmichael, Sahil Charania, Josh Dascombe, Narsingh Deonarine, Gayan Fernando, Cameron Gannon, Karima Gore, Shaheer Hassan, Ian Holland, Akshay Homraj, Elmore Hutchinson, Najam Iqbal, Shayan Jahangir, Karthikeya Jagadish, Aaron Jones, Nosthush Kenjige, Ali Khan, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Jaskaran Malhotra, Xavier Marshall, Sushant Modani, Vivek Narayan, Saurabh Netravalkar, Monank Patel, Nisarg Patel, Sagar Patel, Timil Patel, Kyle Philip, Usman Rafiq, Raymond Ramrattan, Dominique Rikhi, Luke Schofield, Gajanand Singh, Jessy Singh, Sunny Sohal, Cameron Stevenson, Steven Taylor, Rusty Theron, Karan Viradiya.