Ganga’s men ready for Guyanese

TRINIDAD and Tobago cricketers will not be intimidated by the strong batting line-up in the final of the regional limited overs competition tomorrow at Kensington Oval in Barbados. Instead the young, inexperienced team under Daren Ganga is primed to win the final match of their three-week campaign and bring home the President’s Cup. These sentiments were relayed yesterday by team manager Omar Khan in a telephone interview from the Silver Rock Hotel where the players yesterday spent a day of relaxation. “Some went to the beach others enjoyed a few rounds of golf. They thoroughly deserved a day off,” said Khan. On Thursday, Trinidad and Tobago produced a solid batting performance to defeat Barbados by 11 runs on the Duckworth/Lewis System when bad light ended their semi-final prematurely at the Windward Club Ground.

That victory against the powerful host team propelled them into the final where they will meet Guyana, who booked their place with an easy eight-wicket win yesterday against the Windward Islands at the same venue. Khan, who saw yesterday’s match, said the Windwards threw away their chance of reaching the final by careless batting and that 174 runs at the small ground and on a batsman’s paradise was not enough to challenge the Guyanese, the defending regional one-day cricket champions. And he said despite the opponents’ sound batting performance to get the required runs yesterday, the Trinidad and Tobago line-up refuses to be over-awed by the big names in the Guyana side headed by left-handed West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

Also in the Guyana team are several players who play club cricket in Trinidad and Tobago including hard-hitting Lennox Cush, Narsingh Deonarine, Neil McGarrell and Damodar Daesrath. “Big names do not play cricket. Jamaica also had several top players and we beat them in Guyana. It will be 11 players against 11 players and we are determined to emerge the winners,” said a confident Khan yesterday. He said the only major concern for  his team was the fitness of middle-order batsmen Shazam Babwah who suffered a relapse of a groin injury and he fears the powerful Preysal batsman may not be 100 percent ready. “Trainer Gerard Garcia is working agressively to get him fit for Sunday. He is an invaluable player with lots of experience and we need him in the middle,” said Khan yesterday. He said the players will begin to refocus on the matter at hand today with a full training session at the Barbados Defence Force Ground and will pay a visit to the Kensington Oval this afternoon to take a look at the wicket for the final.

The venue for the final is bigger than the Windward Club Ground where the semi-finals were staged and the ground has a history of favouring the batsmen offering a predictable bounce which encourages strokeplay. And with a fast outfield, lot of runs could be in the offing when the Trinidad and Tobago players attempt to dethrone the Guyanese and cop only their second regional one-day championship in eight years. Incidentally, that victory was achieved under Brian Lara, the current West Indies captain against Guyana in 1996 when leg spinner Rajindra Dhanraj took a sensational hat-trick to give Trinidad and Tobago the spoils. Khan has no qualms about history repeating itself tomorrow. “The players will be going all out to finish the tournament as they started and bring home the President’s Cup,” he said.