Shakes arrives tomorrow

RICKY SHAKES will showcase his talents to both national coach Bertille St Clair and Under-20 boss Anton Corneal during a six-day stay in Trinidad. Shakes who will turn 20 on January 25, is one of the many British-born footballers eligible to represent Trinidad and Tobago, and the utility player who plays with English Premier League club Bolton Wanderers, will arrive in Trinidad tomorrow. But Shakes who joined the squad last January, has only two first team caps to his name. He scored on his debut, a 2-1 defeat to Tranmere Rovers on January 13  in a FA Cup third round contest and also featured in his team’s 2-0 victory against Yeovil in the Carling Cup second round on September 21. With the likes of captain Jay Jay Okocha of Nigeria, Senegal’s El Hadji Diouf, ex-England forward Les Ferdinand and Jamaican Ricardo Gardner established as Bolton’s attacking options, Shakes is yet to play a Premiership game and has been confined to the reserves.

But Shakes, son of a Trinidadian mother, is not the only young English-born player being looked at by the TT technical staff, as the progress of strikers Bobby Zamora, Jason Norville and midfielder Andre Boucaud are being monitored. According to an Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) official, St Clair held a series of meetings with technical consultant Graham Taylor during a recent week-long visit to England and promised to monitor the performances of both the British-based and British-born TT players. “There are a number of things that we’re doing and it’s better that we not make it public as yet,” stated the TTFF official, “but there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes to get the team ready and prepared for the final round of World Cup qualifying competition.”