TT eye maximum points

GEORGETOWN: Trinidad and Tobago manager Omar Khan praised his country’s development programme for their current fine showing in this year’s Carib Beer Series. Trinidad and Tobago will take on Guyana in a fifth round game starting today at the Albion Community Development Centre ground in Berbice. Khan said despite missing a few of their stars, including West Indies captain and batting maestro Brian Lara, and a few young promising players who are with the West Indies Under-19 team in Sri Lanka, his team is in second position after four rounds.  Barbados leads the points standings with the maximum 48 points from four outright wins followed closely by Trinidad on 36. “We have a pretty young team.

The average age of the team is 22. We have lost over the last year a number of our players who are involved in the West Indies team and the West Indies under-19 team, namely Lara, Merv Dillon, Daren Ganga and Ravi Rampaul with the senior team and Dinesh Ramdhin and Lendl Simmons with the under-19 team,” Khan revealed. “In addition the retirements of former West Indies leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine, who is only 28 and off-spinner Mukesh Persad have forced the Trinidad selectors to rebuild. “Fortunately for us in Trinidad we have a very good youth development coaching programme. “The Sir Frank Worrell Development Centre is used as an academy. Every year a batch of 17-18 cricketers coming out from tournaments such as the West Indies under-19 series are fed into the academy.” Khan said the result is players such as Amit Jaggernauth. Only 20, Jaggernauth was referred to by Khan as a “mystery spinner” because he bowls both leg-spin and off-spin. Khan was also loud in praise of batsman Dwayne Bravo.

Also only 20, Bravo is rapidly making a name for himself Khan said, and looking to show the West Indies selectors that he is ready for the big time. So far Khan said Bravo has scored over 369 runs this season and has taken 19 wickets. “We want to maintain that level of performance... that level of intensity. We are here to play hard, competitive cricket and will be looking for maximum points,” Khan declared. Khan said their objective is to keep abreast with Barbados who they will play in the final round at home. At that time Lara, Dillon, and Jamaican-born Ricardo Powell who now plays for Trinidad, will be back from South Africa, and Khan is confident his  team will defeat  the front-runners in what should be the “grand finale.” The manager said that Daren Ganga, who was in England, was due to arrive in Guyana on Wednesday night and will be a welcome addition to the team.