Preview Between TT vs Jamaica
January 16th 2009

T&T’s inspirational captain Daren Ganga will looking for a belated birthday gift, when he leads the local team against Jamaica in a crucial second round of the West Indies Cricket Board Four-Day competition on Friday, at the Queen’s Park Oval.

Ganga who T&T’s most successful captain, celebrated his 30th birthday on Wednesday and will looking to put icing on the cake with maximum points from this encounter.

T&T was on the receiving end in last year’s tournament, with the title-holding Jamaicans, defeating the Daren Ganga-led team on first innings in the Four-Day series and in the final of the Carib Beer Challenge.

And coach of the local team, Kelvin Williams is ensuring that all systems are in place to take full points from the Jamaicans.

The former T&T allrounder said preparations have been good since the team’s arrival from Barbados on Tuesday.

T&T led by good performances from skipper Ganga, batsmen, Daren Bravo, Adrian Barath, Lendl Simmons and spinners Sherwin Ganga and Amit Jaggernauth took first innings points against the Bajans in their opening round fixture at the Police Sports Club ground.

“ Preparations have been good since our arrival. We are concentrating a little more on our fielding. We have looked at it as a critical area following the game against Barbados. Today (yesterday) we did a little batting and bowling to ensure the guys remain in shape.

“ There is nothing to be disappointed about in our opening game. We just one bad session, that was on the final day between lunch and tea. We are addressing that problem (fielding), since it was a cause for concern,” Williams said.

Captain Ganga said that they are aware that Jamaica is a good team and they are also mindful that they had the better of them twice in 2008.

“However, we had a solid performance against Barbados and our hallmark this season is to play good and quality cricket. All the guys are ready and prepared for the Jamaican challenge,” Ganga said.

Manager of the T&T team, Colin Borde said that his players are oozing with confidence for this important fixture.

“We have done our preparation - hard work, focused and each player is prepared to do his part to make the Red, White and Black proud. “ It is important that we continue to play intelligent, consistent cricket.

Consistency will be the hallmark of the regional championship this season. Team work as well as quality cricket are the ingredients that make a successful team. Our aim is to improve upon those ingredients with each game,” Borde said.

Coach of the Jamaican team, Junior Bennett said that once they play together as a team, they will be very competitive.

“ We are confident, it is our second game of the tournament and we are coming off a victory against the Leewards, which is positive start for us. It is always a challenge playing against Trinidad and Tobago and this game is no exception. I believe that once we play together as a team and execute efficiently, we will be very competitive,” Bennett said.

T&T ’s selectors have been included the 2008 National Cricket League Cricketer of the Year Imran Khan in their 14-man-squad.

Khan, who has played five first-class matches, has been in good batting form in recent weeks, scoring a match-saving 96 for South in the drawn Gerry Gomez Memorial Classic against North at the Queen’s Park Oval in late December.

The right-hand batsman and slow right- arm spinner was MVP for the South team in the Classic.

With six points, T&T are currently third in the early standings after taking first-innings points in their drawn away game against Barbados in the opening round.

Defending champions Jamaica defeated the Leeward Islands by six wickets in their opener in St Kitts and picked up maximum 12 points to share the lead with the Windward Islands.

TEAMS:

T&T SQUAD - Daren Ganga (captain), Adrian Barath, Lendl Simmons, Darren Bravo, Imran Khan, Justin Guillen, Sherwin Ganga, Rayad Emrit, Richard Kelly, Dave Mohammed, Amit Jaggernauth, Atiba Alert, Sunil Narine, Gibran Mohammed.
Manager: Colin Borde. Coach: Kelvin Williams. Trainer: Ronald Rogers.

JAMAICA SQUAD - Tamar Lambert (captain), Brenton Parchment, Danza Hyatt, Don Hyatt, Wavell Hinds, Dave Bernard Jnr., Keith Hibbert, Horace Miller, Odean Brown, Andre Russell, Garvin Wallace, Jason Dawes, Andrew Richardson.
Manager: Derone Dixon. Coach: Junior Bennett. Trainer: Dave Bernard Snr..
UMPIRES: Khemraj Barrasingha & Goland Greaves.
Stand-by: Basheer Ali. Statistician: Rohit Balkissoon.