WELLINGTON — New Zealand's Kane Williamson is likely to miss the next three One-Day Internationals in the World Cup warm-up series against Sri Lanka to recover from a minor shoulder injury. The top-order batsman damaged the shoulder when fielding in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Christchurch and will be sidelined for the next seven to 10 days, almost certainly ruling him out of games two, three and four of the seven-match series. “Kane is obviously a very important player for us and we need to give his shoulder the time to fully recover,” New Zealand coach Mike Hesson said in a news release. “He's played a lot of cricket of late and this window will allow him to get back to 100 percent.” New Zealand co-host the World Cup with Australia from Feb. 13 to March 29. Gayle fuming Chris Gayle has accused the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) of victimization after key all-rounders Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard were left out of the country's World Cup squad. The powerful left-handed opener was left flabbergasted by the axing of the pair, which he feels has little to do with their performance on the pitch. Bravo, who was captain of the team, and Pollard were seen as leading the player revolt in India that forced the abandonment of the West Indies tour to the country last October after a pay dispute with the WICB. “There's no way you can tell me those guys shouldn't be in the team,” Gayle told reporters. “For me it's got to be victimization towards those two guys. Come on guys, it's just ridiculous. Honestly, it choked me up.” The players had been told they would be left out of the World Cup team as the country was building a team for the future, though as Gayle points out, the timing is odd going into a major tournament. “Bravo said to me the team they selected is to build for the next World Cup, which I can't understand,” he said. “What they're telling us then, is this team selected is not going there to win the World Cup. “Building for the next World Cup is ridiculous. I cannot understand what Bravo told me.” Gayle added the team would be weakened by the loss of the pair both in the batting and bowling departments. “I don't know where our cricket is heading with this sort of situation. It's really sad,” Gayle said. The duo have helped West Indies win the Twenty20 series in South Africa where they lead 2-0 going into Wednesday's final match in Durban. — Agencies
