T&TCB Regional Under17 Series
December 10th 2008

Battle for youth supremacy starts today

A galaxy of young and up-coming stars will be on parade on Thursday, when the in-augural T&T Cricket Board Regional U-17 Cricket Series bowls off at venues in North and Central Trinidad.

The brainchild of CEO and General Secretary of the T&TCB, Forbes Persaud, the tournament was officially launched on Tuesday at the Sir Frank Worrell Cricket Development Centre in Balmain, Couva.

The week-long series is an initiative of the T&T CB in which teams from the traditional six territorial boards — host country T&T, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Leeward Islands and Windward Islands — will take part in a 50-over-per-side contest.

The T&TCB has ploughed close to $500,000 into staging the series. Much of these funds came from grants received by the T&TCB from the Stanford 2020 organisation.

According to second vice-president of the T&TCB and newly appointed chairman of the Regional Matches Committee, Leo Doodnath, the local board have recognised that there is a vacuum regionally at the U-17 level, and they have decided to carry their developmental thrust from national to regional level.

“Against this backround we have decided to host a series as this, and we are indeed very happy that all the territorial boards have responded positively to our invitation to participate,” Doodnath said.

T&T will come up against the Windward Islands at the Queen’s Park Oval, in the feature attraction of the opening round.

The homsters will start as early favourites to lift the title, as no fewer than eight players, who represented the T&T U-17 team in the Sir Garfield Sobers International Schools Tournament, earlier this year are included in the squad, including skipper Yannick Ottley.

Along with Ottley, Sachin Boodram, Vikash Rampersad, Daron Bekhah, Kissoondath Magram, Teshawn Castro and Kerwyn Sirju were in the T&T team which defeated Lodge School in the final at the Kensington Oval in Barbados.

Also included in the T&T U-17 team are two members of the T&T U-19 side, Evin Lewis and Yannic Cariah, and West Indies U-15 captain Stephen Katwaroo and left-arm spinner Derone Davis.

Coach of the T&T team, Tarrandath Sammy said that his side is oozing with confidence and ready for action.

“ We are very confident and looking to add to our success following last year’s triangular series. The guys are focused on the task ahead. Team morale has been lifted following a motivational talk by the National Senior team captain, Daren Ganga at the side’s training base at the National Cricket Centre,” Sammy said.

In another interesting encounter, Barbados and Guyana will clash at Gilbert Park in California. Four players who participated in this year’s TCL West Indies U-19 Challenge in Bridgetown are included in the Barbados team.

Among them, talented and impressive batsman, Kraigg Brathwaite, skipper Jason Haynes, allrounders Royston Chase and Dario Cummings.

Manager of the young Bajans, Elvis Howard praised the efforts of the T&TCB for their vision in staging the tournament.

“ Kudos must go to the T&T Cricket Board for having the foresight in organising this series, which in my mind can serve a dual purpose — enhancing the further development in the future of West Indies cricket, and forming bonds among players from the various countries, which will serve them in good stead,” Howard said.

In the remaing fixture of the opening round, Jamaica and the Leeward Islands will battle at Inshan Ali Park in Preysal.

All matches will consist of one innings per-side and each innings will be limited to 50 six-ball overs. A minimum of 20 overs per team will constitute a match.

Play starts at 9.30 am.

Round One Fixtures - Thursday Dec 11

• Jamaica v Leeward Islands at Inshan Ali Park (Basheer Ali & Peter Nero).
• Windward Islands v T&T at Queen’s Park Oval (Joel Wilson & Rawle Richards)
• Guyana v Barbados at Gilbert Park (Khemraj Barrasingha & Hayden Bruce).