Mark runs for Ganga says Omar Khan

Manager of the Trinidad and Tobago cricket team Omar Khan is confident that national captain Daren Ganga will perform well against Sri Lanka in the upcoming Test series.

Khan, the Corporate Communi-cations Manager at PowerGen said yesterday Ganga needs to re-focus on his game and success will flow. Ganga started off the Cable and Wireless Test series against Australia with a bang scoring two centuries in the first two Test matches. After this he fell off and did not make any significant scores in the last two Tests. The West Indies selectors did not use him for the seven-match one day series but they have called him up to lead the President’s XI against the visiting Sri Lankans in the last warm-up match before the Test series gets underway. Khan managed Ganga earlier this season in the Carib Beer series. ”Ganga will do well against the Sri Lankans. He is one of the most technically correct batsmen in the Caribbean and he will do well against their attack. What he has to realise is that the game is played mostly in the head and he has to be at least 90 percent mentally ready for the battle at hand. “I have been noticing him since the Carib Beer regional series and every time he goes out there to bat he looks an improvement. I am sure he has been working on his game all the while and come Test time he would do much better,” Khan said.

Khan rated the West Indies chances against the third ranked Test team as very good. “Once the guys play consistent cricket they will defeat the Sri Lankans. They need to believe in themselves because they have the ability to play the game well. They must take an example from opener Wavell Hinds who showed that once you apply yourself you can be successful,” he said. Hinds scored two successive hundreds in the one day series to cop the “Player of the Series” award. Skipper Brian Lara also came in for high praise from Khan. ”I think that Brian Lara has added a lot to his captaincy and has shown these guys how to gain success. He has motivated them and you can see a different West Indies team under his captaincy. He has taught the individuals in the team their roles and this will only bring good things to West Indies cricket,” Khan said.