WICB CUP
November 20th 2008

T&T seeks revenge against Jamaica

T&T cricketers, under the astute leadership of Daren Ganga, will be seeking to exact revenge against defending champion Jamaica, when the countries meet in one of the semifinals today in a day/night encounter of the WICB Cup One-day competition at the Guyana National Stadium in New Providence.

T&T was beaten by the Jamaicans in an historic final last year at the 3Ws Oval in Barbados and will be looking to go one better against its archrivals in the 50-over affair.

Led by several outstanding performances from most of the players, the well-knitted and disciplined T&T outfit topped the standings in the preliminary stages of the tournament with 16 points, ahead of the Leeward Islands, Barbados and Jamaica.

Manager of the T&T team, Colin Borde was high in praise for his youthful side in the first stage of the competition, where they played unbeaten. He is hoping that the players will continue in that same vein in the knockout stages of the tournament.

“ Tomorrow’s (today) game is most crucial and we will have to raise our game even higher, it is the knockout stage and there is no room for complacency. The players are all geared up and ready to go,” Borde stated. Borde added that the earlier part of the tournament was well executed by the team, in which a high level of professionalism was shown.

“ So far we have performed creditably in all facets of the game. We have gotten two century partnerships by Adrian Barath and Lendl Simmons, and Barath and skipper Ganga. Also there were several 50-run-partnerships in the middle-order. So the batsmen have lived up to expectations,” Borde said. He added that among the bowlers, allrounder Samuel Badree has been outstanding and the fielding has been quite good.

“ We had a good test against the Leeward Islands and we came out on top. Also we were able to get required targets under 40 overs, which meant that we restricted the opponents to less than 230 runs. I am quite pleased with the showing thus far and I am confident that we will lift the silverware this time around,” Borde further stated.

Former T&T allrounder and current coach of the team, Kelvin Williams is elated at the side’s outstanding showing so far.

However, he noted that there are several areas which needs to improve and the players have taken note of it.

“ It has been a fantastic showing by the team so far, however, there are areas that needs to be worked on. These areas have been identified and the players have taken stock of it. So come tomorrow (today) another great showing is expected. Young Adrian Barath, Lendl Simmons, skipper Ganga, Keiron Pollard, as a matter of fact there have been decent performances by all the batsmen. In the bowling department, the guys have been superb. If we continue in this same vein, we will surely take centre stage in the final on Sunday,” Williams said.

The team rounded off preparations with a two-hour batting session at the playing venue and followed up with a fielding sessions under lights. Play starts at 1.30 pm and live coverage will be carried on Vibe CT 105 FM.

T&T team:
Lendl Simmons, Adrian Barath, Daren Ganga (captain), Darren Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Sherwin Ganga, Gibran Mohammed, Rayad Emrit, Samuel Badree, Ravi Rampaul, Amit Jaggernauth, Rishi Bachan, Richard Kelly, William Perkins. Manager - Colin Borde. Coach - Kelvin Williams. Trainer - Ronald Rogers.