T&T Team Leaves for Barbados
January 5th 2009

A confident T&T team will depart on Tuesday at 6 am for Bridgetown, to take on Barbados in the opening match of the 2009 WICB Four-day Regional Tournament at the Police Sports Club Ground, starting on Friday.

Led by inspirational captain Daren Ganga, the T&T selectors headed by former T&T middle-order batsman Narine Bidhesi have named three newcomers in the 13-man squad for the opener.

Former Under-19 batsman Justin Guillen has earned a call up after solid performances in the trial matches and the Stanford Super Series last year, while former West Indies Youth team off-spinner Sunil Narine and fast bowler Atiba Alert, have also been included after a series of impressive performances.

Narine sent a strong signal to selectors when he took all 10 wickets in an innings in a trial match recently while Alert has been steady, bowling impressively in the annual North/South match last Wednesday.

Former T&T hard-hitting allrounder and coach of the national team, Kelvin Williams is quietly confident that his charges will do well against the Bajans.

Williams said that although that some of the preparations were hampered by rain, the indoor sessions were a success.

“ I am satisfied with the batting line-up and we have a pretty good bowling attack.

We are leaning towards the spinners to do the trick for us, since the opposition is not too comfortable against spin bowling,” Williams said.

The burly Williams said that the three newcomers have earned their pick on merit and are well focused to repay the selectors confidence in them with some decent performances.

“ Justin Guillen has played a lot of club cricket in Barbados, Sunil Narine has bowled well in the rain affected trial matches, while fast bowler Atiba Alert is always pretty impressive with the ball. So I expect them to show their worth in the tournament,” Williams said.

Manager of the team, Colin Borde said the side is bent on keeping the national flag flying high and winning the championship is number one on their agenda.

“The team is a well balanced team and a mixture of youth and experience, an experience seam attack, experience and well accomplished spinners, a talented top-order, solid middle-order but most importantly they are very focused, hungry and dedicated team led by Daren Ganga,” Borde said.

He said that 2009 is going to be a long season and it will require mental toughness, physical fitness and a will to win.

“Team work and consistency will be the necessary ingredients to become regional champions. We as a team understand the pride and commitment required to carry the Red, White and Black. We will do all that is neccessary to honour the flag,” Borde further stated.

The team rounded off their preparations with net and physical sessions at the Queen’s Park Oval on Sunday.

SQUAD – Daren Ganga (captain), Adrian Barath, Lendl Simmons, Darren Bravo, Justin Guillen, Sherwin Ganga, Gibran Mohammed, Rayad Emrit, Richard Kelly, Dave Mohammed, Amit Jaggernauth, Atiba Alert, Sunil Narine.

Manager: Colin Borde. Coach: Kelvin Williams. Trainer: Ronald Rogers.