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Tucker to be ready for Twenty20, says physio Brown

On the mend: Physio Craig Brown (right) expects top cricketer Janeiro Tucker to make a full recovery from a hamstring injury prior to next March?s ICC World Twenty20 in Dubai.

Bermuda Cricket Board (BCB) physiotherapist Craig Brown said he expects top all-rounder Janeiro Tucker to make a full recovery from injury prior to the Island’s ICC World Twenty20 Global Qualifying commitment in Dubai next March.Doubts were raised over the Southampton Rangers stalwart’s place in the squad after he tore his left hamstring while climbing a ladder at work last week.However, leading physio Brown is confident that Tucker will bounce back from his injury ordeal before the national team’s departure for Dubai in early March.“Having a look at Janeiro and talking with him it is a pretty significant hamstring tear,” he said. “But knowing the way that Janeiro has been working hard in getting fit over the last three or four months we don’t anticipate it will be something that will linger on into the Twenty20.“We feel that he will get enough time to recover from his injury and also be able to go forward from there and still put in a substantial workload before the selection process for the Twenty20 is completed.“This doesn’t really seem to be something that hinders his chances for selection and we are anticipating three or four weeks before he is ready to completely work out from a training perspective, like running and jumping and things of that nature. But there are other things he can do around that to maintain some fitness while he is recuperating from his hamstring injury.”Tucker’s latest injury setback arrived fresh on the heels of a niggling calf injury that originally hampered his World Twenty20 preparations.“He’s been unfortunate over the last three weeks because he had a calf injury which he just got over and he’s now suffered a hamstring injury,” Brown said. “He’s had a little run of bad luck but hopefully that bad luck will disappear and he will be ready to go in 2012 early on.”Earlier this week the ICC announced that Bermuda have been pitted in Group A along with fellow ICC Associate members Netherlands, Canada, Papua New Guinea, Nepal, Denmark and Hong Kong and ICC Affiliate member Afghanistan, who appeared in the previous World Twenty20 held in the West Indies.At the 2005 ICC Trophy in Ireland Tucker led Bermuda to 2007 ICC World Cup qualification standing in for injured skipper Clay Smith and his presence in Dubai could prove to be equally as vital to the Island’s hopes of appearing in the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka.“Janeiro is definitely one of our most experienced players and he offers something with both the bat and ball,” Brown said. “Once he comes in and gets himself fit and ready to go again I do believe he should have enough time to get training and from there hopefully offer something to Bermuda and we can come through our group and get through to the World Cup (World Twenty20).“Ideally we want our most experienced players available for selection and then after that the selection people will see how we go from there.”