Chanderpaul to miss opening match of four day competition

West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul has been ruled out of Guyana's opening match of the regional four day competition after failing to recover from a finger injury he sustained on the tour of Australia last month. He will sit out the second-round match against Trinidad & Tobago in Antigua next week, after Guyana drew a bye for the first round in Jamaica. Vishal Singh has been named as his replacement.

Chanderpaul's recovery time was expected to be four weeks but he informed the selectors that the treatment on the injury was inadequate and as a result, the ligament had not fully healed.

Despite the presence of captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, Narsingh Deonarine and Travis Dowlin, Chanderpaul's stability will be missed in the middle order against a strong Trinidadian lineup.

Meanwhile, Singh has played just the one first-class match, against Barbados at Providence last April, and has been in tremendous form for his domestic side Demerara.

Guyana will be hoping for a better showing this year after finishing bottom of the standings on 33 points last season.