TTCB – News

T&T cricketers make regional history
November 29, 2011

TRINIDAD  and Tobago’s cricketers made history when eight young talented players lined up for West Indies selection against India in a five-match One-Day International Series which began on Tuesday in Cuttack.

The five-match rubber continues on December 2 (Visakhapatnam), December 5 (Ahmedabad), December 8 (Indore) and ends on December 11 (Chennai).

In the opening ODI encounter five T&T players made the cut, an accomplishment that has made officials of the T&T Cricket Board extremely proud but not surprised. 

It is believed to be the first time in the history of  regional cricket that the  senior side has been so dominated by cricketers from one territory and the T&TCB is in no doubt about the reasons for their unprecedented success.

The T&T octet is led by dashing stroke-player Darren Bravo, who recently blossomed with three Test centuries in India and Bangladesh and includes new T&T team captain Denesh Ramdin, fast bowler Ravi Rampaul, opening batsmen Lendl Simmons and Adrian Barath, hard-hitting allrounder Kieron Pollard, utility batsman Jason Mohammed and rookie mystery spinner Sunil Narine.

The thread connecting all these players  and trumped as the foundation of the T&T cricket set-up is the Sir Frank Worrell Development Centre, a sprawling  17 and a half acre Board-owned facility which also accommodates the National Cricket Centre at Balmain, Couva, off the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway. 

President of the T&T Cricket Board Azim Bassarath is especially proud of the fact that the T&T cricketers are proving themselves at an opportune time since he said his administration’s first term of office starting in 2007, has resusitated the SFWDC as the cornerstone of the Board’s cricket development programme.

And he readily attributes the meteoric graduation of the local cricketers on the world stage to their participation from an early age in the coaching and development programmes afforded by the T&T Cricket Board with the assistance of Government and through sponsorship from several socially conscious corporate citizens.

Bassarath, recently re-elected president of the T&TCB unopposed along with his top executives  said the headline-grabbing T&T cricketers all received their basic cricket instructions and coaching in age group programmes and would have spend some time in their development at the SFWDC.

A brainchild of the legendary sports administrator Alloy Lequay, a former president and Chief Executive Officer of the T&TCB, the SFWDC was officially opened in June 2002 and was conceptualized as an institute of learning with a stated goal of producing “thinking cricketers.”

Named after the first Black captain of the West Indies Test team and inspirational leader, the SFWDC was the first institute of its kind started by a regional cricket organization and has been internationally recognized as the foremost incubator of natural talent in the region.

The T&TCB leader said that despite the unavailability of funds, creative ways have been found to keep the facility functioning but admitted the process is making a dent in their limited financial resources. However he points out that the success current enjoyed by the T&T cricketers justifies the investment made in their growth and development over the years.

Former chairman of the Coaching and Youth Development of the T&T Cricket Board Baldath Mahabir has also chimed in on the spectacular results of the SFWDC and the programmes prior to 2002 when the facility came onstream.

Mahabir, presently one of the T&TCB respresentatives along with Dr Allen Sammy on the WICB Board of Directors, said cricketers Rampaul, Simmons and wicketkeeper Ramdin first represented T&T at the Under-15 level in 1999.

Also establishing themselves early as future national and regional stars were Darren Bravo in the Under-l3 team in 2003; Barath, who scored a century on Test debut in Australia two years later; Mohammed and Narine also gained selection as Under-15s in 2000 and 2003 respectively; while Pollard, the highest paid international T20 player played at the Under-19 stage in 2005.

“Ramdin,  Darren Bravo, Barath, Mohammed, and Narine all captained T&T at some age group level and I am almost certain that they all attended the T&TCB Academy. It is worth noting that all eight cricketers started their national careers in the pre-Deryck Murray era in 2007. I can say so because I was the chairman of Coaching and Youth Development for all of this period,” said Mahabir confidently.

He described the SFWDC is a work in progress built on the foundations of honesty, integrity, hardwork, commitment, passion and goodwill.

Mahabir in 2000 he wrote in a published article that the good times for T&T cricket were ahead. “How prophetic those words appear to be today,” said Mahabir. “Nothing beats good, honest, hard work in the end,” said Mahabir.

The knowledgeable cricket official recalled that when the National Cricket Centre and the  SFWDC started construction, it was compared to a “cow shed” by unkind detractors of the vision outlined by the then cricket administration led by Lequay.

He said he is now proud to declare that an indigenous institute has developed into an elite cricket machine turning out players of incredible athletic ability worthy of taking their place on the international stage.

President of the T&TCB Bassarath looks ahead to the further upgrading of the facility to include adequate seating accommodation for patrons, a world class lighting system to facilitate night cricket and an enhanced playing surface.

His dream is to afford the best possible opportunities for all T&T cricketers, male and female, and in the process transform the Cricket Board into a self-sustaining business organisation not dependent on handouts but able to generate its own income.