TTCB – News

Newlook T&T face Leewards
January 28, 2010

TRINIDAD and Tobago are expected to field a new lineup for their crucial clash against the Leeward Islands today in the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Four-Day tournament at the Foursquare Oval in St Philips, Barbados.

Batsmen William Perkins and Daron Cruickshank along with wicketkeper Gibran Mohammed and pacer Shannon Gabriel were called into the team.

They replace Ravi Rampaul, Lendl Simmons and Denesh Ramdin who were selected in the West Indies team while Rayad Emrit who was dropped.

TT coach Kelvin Williams on Wednesday revealed that Gabriel is expected to make his First Class debut with the pitch favouring the bowlers.

“The feedback we have gotten about the pitch is that it is a good one where the batsmen would have to grind out the runs. We will have a look at the conditions and decide what combination is the best to go with, but Shannon Gabriel should make his debut,” said Williams in a telephone interview yesterday.

He also hinted that there could be a change in the spin attack with off-spinner Sunil Narine who was dominant during the trials matches poised to make his first start of the season.

“Another predicament was how best to get the spinners performing? All directions right now point to Sunil Narine. We need a different variety with someone who can make things happen. There needs to be some difference and Sunil has been waiting patiently on his opportunity. I always speak to him and tell him to wait on his opportunity and grasp his chance. He is very talented young man and has been around the team setup for some while,” said Williams.

The national team is fifth in the standings with nine points followed by the Leeward Islands on six points. Defending champions Jamaica lead the standings with a maximum 36 points followed by Barbados on 21 points. An outright victory is necessary if the national team is to have an outside chance of winning the regional tournament.

“We have an outside chance of winning this tournament and this match is very crucial to this happening. Everybody was hoping for overnight changes and this has not happened which is reflected by our position in the standings,” said Williams.

He expressed satisfaction with the progress of the team after starting poorly against Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) with the players having another productive session at the Wayne Daniel Field in St Philips.

Williams added that the team has been boosted by the performances of players who were finally maturing and commended the performances of Justin Guillen, Sherwin Ganga and Jason Mohammed.

“Justin scored a brilliant hundred. He scored under pressure and it showed the character of the player. It was also special that it was done in Barbados where he had played lots of club cricket.

“Denesh Ramdin showed a return to form with the bat with Sherwin Ganga having an excellent knock in the first innings and was unlucky to be run out for 99.

“Jason has done well and I hope the batters can continue in this form. There is a lot of pressure on the skipper because he needs to come good with the bat,” said Williams.

The other matches being played are; CCC versus Guyana at the Three Ws Oval in Bridgetown and the Windward Island taking on Barbados at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown.