TT cricketers lack guts says team manager

Manager of the senior Trinidad and Tobago cricket team Omar Khan yesterday said that the failure to advance in the Carib Beer Series regional cricket series is due to a deep societal problem. After playing unbeaten for four rounds in the competition, TT lost their last three matches and failed to qualify for the International challenge round of the tournament. They ended on 40 points the same as Guyana who advanced ahead of them due to the fact that they defeated TT outright in their preliminary clash.

Needing a solitary point to qualify in their last match against Barbados, TT reached 265 all out just 20 runs short of Barbados first innings total before going under to make an early exit. ”It was a very disappointing end to a very promising series. I blame the debacle as a societal problem that has been around for a long time. Not only in cricket but also in other team sports, Trinidad and Tobago tend to lack that killer instinct. We tend to relax and get lackadaisical once we make a good start in anything,” Khan said yesterday. “The players on the national team lack the fighting spirit and guts to do well and I think that those who cannot show fight at this point must be sidelined. They must be put aside until they are ready to fight tooth and nail for this country. The players or sportsmen are not the only ones who are suffering from this problem, the whole of Trinidad and Tobago is the same. As a people we are mentally weak,” said Khan.

“The coach did a wonderful job and the management team had a plan but the players failed to execute it on the field of play. I am very disappointed in the performance of the guys in the last three matches. They lacked focus and will to win and hence this is why we are in the dumps at present,” the PowerGen engineer said. Khan was however high in praise for three players who he said are bright prospects for the future.  They were Amit Jaggernauth, Dwayne Bravo and Gibran Mohammed. “I think some of the positives coming out of the series was the fact that young  Jaggernauth became a complete cricketer. He was one of the few that really showed fight and belly and was richly rewarded with 30 wickets. It is a pity that his season ended so quickly. He was our best bowler, a fought hard as a lower order batsman and was an excellent slip fielder,” he  said.