West Indians Narine and Pollard out of World Twenty20

KINGSTON, Jamaica: West Indies’ hopes of winning the World Twenty20 for the second time in four years suffered a setback on Friday when off-spinner Sunil Narine and all-rounder Kieron Pollard pulled out of their squad.The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) also announced that all the players would be given until Sunday to settle a dispute by signing their tournament contracts.Earlier this week, captain Darren Sammy said mediation was the best way to settle the row if the board would not “consider our request to double the match fees (of $6,900), share 50 percent of sponsorship fees and award 100 percent of prize money to players”.Narine, picked last month despite being banned from the international arena due to an illegal bowling action, told the WICB that he was withdrawing because he had made “insufficient progress” with his rehabilitative work.He also pulled out of the squad for last year’s 50-over World Cup to work on his bowling action, which was first reported in 2014.The WICB have not named a replacement for the 27-year-old Narine who has taken 40 wickets at an average of 17.75 in 34 Twenty20s.The board said Pollard, 28, had told them he could not play in next month’s World Twenty20 in India because the knee injury he sustained in South Africa’s Ram Slam T20 in November had not fully healed.He will be replaced in the squad by Carlos Brathwaite. (Reuters)’