Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer

Jamaica's senior cricket team, now on a two-match tour of the eastern Caribbean, is set to lose Four of its top players earlier than expected.

Chris Gayle, Jerome Taylor, Daren Powell and Marlon Samuels, who toured Pakistan with the West Indies team late last year, will not play the second set of matches against the Windwards as previously scheduled because they must team up with the regional squad to tour India (for a four-match one-day series) at an earlier date.

The Jamaicans drew their first match in the regional Carib Beer Series against the Leeward Islands yesterday and are slated to face the same country in the KFC Cup one-day competition tomorrow.

Asked if the absence of the four players would seriously affect the team, secretary of the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) and manager of the team in St. Kitts, Milton Henry, said: "I can't say that, because we knew for a couple of days now (of their unavailability for the second game)."

He added: "We have been making arrangements to fly in replacements for the second game."

Henry said the players will leave to join the West Indies team between tomorrow afternoon and Wednesday morning so it is uncertain whether they will be available for the limited- overs match against the Leewards.

"We are waiting on the WICB to say when, but they definitely will miss the second Carib Beer game against Windward Islands," Henry stated of the match set to run from January 12 to 15.

REPLACEMENTS

The players will be replaced by batsmen Jamie Trenchfield and Danza Hyatt, the only two batsmen in the 18-man squad who did not travel. Trenchfield, the national Under-19 captain, has not played at the first-class level before.

The other two are bowlers, spinner Bevon Brown and fast bowler André Russell. Brown was also a member of the 18-member squad, while Russell represented Jamaica at last year's Under-19 tournament.