Two West Indies players forced to leave Under-19 World Cup

What's the story?

Two West Indies cricketers, Joshua Persaud and Raymond Perez, have been forced to leave the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand midway into the tournament owing to different reasons. Cricket West Indies have named Jamaican Brad Barnes as Perez's replacement while no one has been named to take the place of wicket-keeper Persaud.

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The 17-year-old Persaud had to immediately depart from New Zealand as a result of his mother's death in an accident in the USA, hearing of which, Cricket West Indies took the initiative of making arrangements for him to fly home to Guyana as soon as possible.

On the other hand, Perez left the squad due to an ankle injury, and like Persaud, has flown back to Guyana.

While Persaud had featured in West Indies' warm-up match against Papua New Guinea on January 8, he did not play in any of the three group matches for his country in the main tournament.

What's next?

Defending champions West Indies Under-19, having lost two of their three group games – they trumped Kenya by 222 runs after having lost to hosts New Zealand and South Africa by 8 wickets and 76 runs, respectively – have failed to qualify for the Quarter-Finals of the junior event.

Therefore, that has left them to be playing in the 9th Place Play-Off Quarter-Final against Ireland Under-19 at Lincoln on January 23.

The teams which have so far qualified for the Quarter-Finals are Australia, England, Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and India.