Shimron Hetmyer dropped from West Indies T20 World Cup squad after missing flight

Cricket West Indies (CWI) said in a statement that Hetmeyer had initially wanted his flight rescheduled due to personal reasons and that request was granted.

The 25-year-old however did not show up for his rescheduled flight and the decision was taken "unanimously" by the Windies selection panel to name a replacement.

"The decision by the CWI selection panel was made as Shimron Hetmyer missed his re-scheduled flight to Australia, which had been changed from Saturday 1 October at his request, due to family reasons," CWI said.

"With flight availability a real challenge, a seat was found for him to leave Guyana today, Monday 3 October, meaning he would unfortunately miss the 1st T20 International (T20I) against Australia on Wednesday 5 October at the Metricon Stadium.

"This morning, Mr Hetmyer, informed the Director of Cricket that he would not be able to get to the airport in time for his flight this afternoon to New York."

Jimmy Adams, CWI's director of cricket, said that Hetmyer had been informed that "any further delay" in travel would cost him his place in the World Cup squad.

"This afternoon we informed the CWI board of directors that the selection panel had unanimously decided to replace Shimron Hetmyer with Shamarh Brooks in our T20 World Cup squad," Adams said.

"Whilst we changed Shimron's flight from Saturday to Monday due to family reasons, it was made clear to him that if there were any further delays and issues with his travel to Australia then we would have no choice but to replace him in the squad, as we are not prepared to compromise the team's ability to prepare for this extremely important global event."

West Indies will take on World Cup hosts Australia in a two-match T20I series before taking on Ireland, Scotland and Zimbabwe in Group B of the qualifying round for the global tournament.

The top two teams in the group will progress to the Super 12 stage of the event.