Shivnarine Chanderpaul - File

COOLIDGE, Antigua (CMC)

Fledgling Leeward Islands fast bowler Lionel Baker, along with Lindon James and Chad Hampson, have been included in a 17-man Stanford Superstars squad announced yesterday to face England in November's US$20 million Twenty20 match.

The trio are the only players without international experience in a squad that includes West Indies captain Chris Gayle, attractive right-hander Ramnaresh Sarwan, prolific scorer Shiv Chanderpaul and all-rounder Dwayne Bravo.

Viv's selection

The selection panel, headed by legendary former West Indies captain Sir Vivian Richards, chose the team following the conclusion of the two-week preparation camp at the Stanford Cricket Ground.

During the camp, seven Twenty20 matches were staged, the final of which was played on Wednesday.

Sir Viv believes the squad selected had the potential to challenge strongly for the US$20 million jackpot, the largest ever payout for a single cricket match.

"We (the selection panel) believe this squad is very capable of doing justice to their selection to the Stanford Superstars squad to face England for the unprecedented purse of US$20 million," Sir Viv said.

"There are several familiar faces in this Stanford Superstars squad but there are some exciting new additions such as Lindon James, Lionel Baker and Chad Hampson and this was due to the fact that there were some high quality performances from these individuals in the Stanford Twenty20 Tourna-ments and they were also very impressive in the just concluded Stanford Superstars camp."

Baker is a 23-year old right arm fast bowler, who played in the Youth World Cup four years ago, while James, who hails from St Vincent & the Grenadines, has played for the Windward Islands in recent years.

Hampson, meanwhile, is the most inexperienced of the lot. The 20-year old medium pacer is yet to play first class cricket and has a single Twenty20 match to his credit.

Chanderpaul had been included in the squad despite missing the two-week camp. He was allowed to fulfil his commitments to English County Durham while remaining eligible for selection.

Confirmation date

The selected players have been given contracts to review and will have 14 days to confirm their participation. Officials are planning a new training camp to prepare the squad for the historic match, scheduled for November 1. No captain or vice-captain has been named. The selection panel also includes Sir Everton Weekes, Curtly Ambrose, Lance Gibbs, Richie Richardson, Andy Roberts and Courtney Walsh.

SQUAD - Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Lionel Baker, Sulieman Benn, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Lennox Cush, Rayad Emrit, Andre Fletcher, Chad Hampson, Lindon James, Sylvester Joseph, Xavier Marshall, Dave Mohammed, Kieron Pollard, Daren Powell, Jerome Taylor.