By JONATHAN RAMNANANSINGH Saturday, February 4 2012

Coach of the Naparima College cricket team, Glen Dwarika revealed that they have the right blend of cricketers to cause major upsets and hopefully go on to lift this year’s PowerGen Secondary Schools Cricket League title.

So far, Naps have won two of their three games played in the league.

The South team won their opening fixture against Union Claxton Bay, lost to Princess Town West and recently crushed Shiva Boys Hindu College. However, their next match will see them go up against defending champions Hillview College at Wilson Road Penal on Tuesday. Dwarika admitted that it would be a tough test but credited the players and the positive fusion they created on the pitch.

“We have a well balanced team and once we communicate correctly on the field, we can come away with some important wins. Hillview will be a challenge but our team will put up a fight and show what they’re made of,” said Dwarika confidently.

Naparima College boasts a very experienced team with a balanced bowling attack.

“We have a strong pace attack which consists of the experienced Rajiv Maharaj and Abdul Saleem Ali. Rajiv is a former Trinidad and Tobago Under-15 player and he plays a very important role on the team,” Dwarika explained.

He continued, “Our spin attack is maybe more effective than the pacers and they have a lot of responsibility as well. Spinners like Jovan Ali, who was a West Indies Under-16 and TT Under-19 player will carry heavy responsibility for us. We also have leg-break spinner Jordan Samkaran and Kareem Mohammed who have been spinning the ball very well. Mohammed is also a great all-rounder since he is our opening batsman as well,” he added. The “Naps” coach also praised Nicholas Pooran who scored a century against Shiva Boys and is confident that he can repeat the performance. He revealed that the team’s strong performances have come even without proper training facilities.

“We’ll work with what we have. Hopefully we should get the nets and other facilities installed by the end of the season. In this time, I really try to get in a lot of physical preparation for the players. We have also been doing a lot of mental work with them. We hope that the club cricket can give them an extra boost to keep their batting and bowling consistent on the field of play,” said Dwarika.