Windies batsmen Barath, Baugh ruled out of WC

Barely a few days before they kick off their World Cup campaign, former champions West Indies became the latest team to be hit by the injury curse when opener Adrain Barath and wicket-keeper Carlton Baugh were on ruled out of the mega-event starting on Saturday in Dhaka.

With these pull outs the number of players forced to withdraw from the World Cup due to injury is 10.

"Medical specialists have determined that in both cases the players will not be able to resume training for two to three weeks," the West Indies Cricket Board said in a statement.

Both the players were suffering from hamstring injuries and had scans on Thursday to asses the graveness of their problems.

Baugh was forced to cut short his 29-run innings against Sri Lanka in a losing cause during West Indies' second warm-up match at Colombo while the exciting 20-year-old Barath was forced to stay indoors during both their preparatory ties.

The West Indies have named uncapped Barbados batsman Kirk Edwards and Antigua wicket-keeper Devon Thomas as the replacement for the two and are awaiting International Cricket Council's approval to incorporate the players in the mix before their opening fixture against South Africa here on February 24.

So far, ICC has already approved eight replacement players for various teams participating in the World Cup.