Ganga backs young players

Trinidad and Tobago start their campaign today against Ruhuna Elevens at the Ranjiv Ghandi International Stadium in Hyderabad, India at 6.30am.

“We have good, talented young faces who might not be as powerful hitters as Pollard is but capable of producing the results. We should essentially play to our strengths and not worry about what we don’t have in the armoury,” Ganga explained.

Trinidad and Tobago have a number of enterprising batsmen in their squad including 21-year-old Adrian Barath, 22-year-old Darren Bravo and 24-year-old Jason Mohammed.

And although the trio are young, they have been wearing national colours for quite some time and are accustomed to pressure situations.

“Kieron’s Pollard absence effectively means a big void in Trinidad and Tobago’s team. But, we have got used to it since we knew of his decision in July itself. We have to move on as a team and face the challenges,” he added.

The former West Indies opener says he is not perturbed by having to play qualifiers this time as opposed to in 2009 when they advanced to the main draw automatically.

“Our chances are as good as that of any other team here. Our strength is the team spirit and we hope to play real good cricket and win two games (Ruhuna and Leicestershire) to make it to the main draw...We are not worried about the new format of this CLT20 wherein despite being T20 champion back home we have to go through the qualifying rounds here...You have to beat the best teams to hope to win the title. That is it,” Ganga pointed out.

Meanwhile, Ruhuna skipper Mahela Udawatte dismissed suggestions that his team is solely dependant on their star batsman Sanath Jayasuriya.

He noted that although Sri Lankan teams have struggled in previous Champions League tournaments, Ruhuna are capable of writing a different chapter than their predecessors.

“It is great to have someone like Sanath Jayasuriya. But the important thing is that we won the championship back home despite Sanath missing the semi-finals and the final,” he explained.