Strong ‘Red Force’ team for CCCBy JONATHAN RAMNANANSINGH Friday, January 27 2012
The Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) named a strong 13- man squad yesterday for their opening fixture of the WICB Regional Four-Day Tournament against the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) which bowls off on February 3 in Barbados.
The squad, captained by Denesh Ramdin, includes several members of the victorious Caribbean T20 team including Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Darren Bravo.
Speaking to Newsday yesterday, Chairman of the National Selection Committee of the TTCB, Dudnath Ramkessoon expressed supreme confidence in the squad as they seek to end their title drought in this version of the game.
“The team is the best we have at this time. We always expect a good performance from the teams we select and this will be a major stepping stone for the cricketers, as it would be a challenge for them,” explained Ramkessoon.
The TTCB selector admitted that it will indeed be a change of pace for the squad, switching from the recently concluded Twenty20 version of the tournament, to the four-day series. He expects that players will change their competitive thinking strategies and adapt to the longer and slower version of the game. However, Ramkessoon was certain that the “Red Force” would harmonise and settle down quickly.
“Coming off victorious from the T20 tournament in Barbados is all well and good but the players must understand that this is a totally different form of cricket and they will have to adjust their game-play. We have a lot of seasoned campaigners on the team and we have that assured faith that they would click on the field. These are professional players and they know how to adjust their styles of play when it matters most,”he added.
When asked why former captain Daren Ganga was not included on the team, Ramkessoon clearly stated that he was still nursing an injury from last year. He admitted that this was the only reason for the non-inclusion of Ganga.
While Ganga is certain to be a no-show, Ramkessoon also revealed that ace bowler Ravi Rampaul would not be participating in the tournament due to injury as well. But the national selector affirmed that the newly selected would have the right artillery to dissect batting line-ups in the four-day competition.
In terms of tournament preparation, Ramkessoon explained that players would be appearing in their scheduled domestic league matches over the weekend.
He mentioned that this would be the only “training” they would be able to receive in Trinidad since the trial match between the Denesh Ramdin XI and Kieron Pollard XI was cancelled due to a wet outfield at the National Cricket Centre, Couva on Wednesday. All other preparation will be done when the team gets to Barbados on Tuesday.
“Players will get a chance to play for their respective clubs this weekend. The cancelled trial matches proved to be a crucial training loss to us and we now have no choice but to make up for it when we get to Barbados.
“We’ll be coming in (Barbados) on Tuesday and we’ll have to make Wednesday and Thursday work because that’s all the time that we have to get in as much training as we can,” Ramkessoon concluded.
TT squad: Dinesh Ramdin (captain), Rayad Emrit, Lendl Simmons, Kieron Pollard, Adrian Barath, Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo, Imran Khan, Darren Bravo, Shannon Gabriel, Jason Mohammed, Atiba Allert, Yannic Cariah, Omar Khan (manager), Kelvin Willaims (coach), Oba Gulston (physio) and Ronald Rogers (trainer).
