Champs Clarke Road, Merry Boys clash

CARIB National Cricket League champions FCB Clarke Road United begin defence of their title against Ceramic Merry Boys when opening round Division One action bowls off today. Clarke Road will be hoping to combat the batting wealth of Merry Boys century-making duo Lincoln Roberts and Mario Belcon with the spin of skipper Mahadeo Bodoe and last year’s leading wicket-taker Mukesh Persad. Today’s action takes place at the Wilson Road Recreation Ground. Penal-based Clarke Road will rely heavily on Tishan Maraj, Alan Mahabir and Guyanese middle-order specialist Homchand Pooran for their runs.

Winning team in this year’s competition will get $45,000 with the runners-up  receiving $20,000. In the other key first round matches, newly-promoted W Conn-ection Wanderers will host Tile It Central Sports at Gilbert Park, while Queen’s Park will be at home to Alescon Comet at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port-of-Spain; and CLICO Preysal entertain PowerGen at Inshan Ali Park, Preysal. Ex-West Indies coach Gus Logie will be hoping to have his youthful Wanderers team make a winning start to their campaign in the top division.

Included in the Connection team are Under-19 opener William Perkins, Loknauth Ramsuchit, Joel Pamphille, Sanjeev Gooljar, Kishore Lalchan, Atiba Alert and Theodore Modeste. But Tile It Central Sports also have an equally-good group of players including brothers Sanjeev Maharaj and Valmiki Maharaj, Nicholas Ramjass, Guyanese Derwin Christian. PowerGen will be led by new captain Denzil James and will field Jason Moha-mmed, Kavesh Kantasingh, Brent Harriot and Gibran Mohammed against their Preysal rivals.