A number of teams from T&T will compete in the annual Sir Gary Sobers cricket tournament from today in Barbados.
The 18-day competition, which is organised by the Ministry of Tourism in Barbados, has attracted a number of great players in the past, including the legendary Brian Lara who represented Fatima College in the 1980s, just to show how long the tournament has been in existence.
Today, T&T will be represented by the Kumar Rampat Cricket Academy (KRCA), Queen’s Park, Presentation College Chaguanas and Fatima College.
KRCA which has produced a number of junior national players in recent times will be coming up against Swiss Junior Academy (SWZ) at Bridgefield from 11 am. Queen’s Park plays America Youth Premier League at Lester Vaughan, Presentation plays Lodge School at the Lodge School ground and Fatima battles Foundation School at Isolation.
The games will be of 40-overs duration and will involve the best youth talent from England, Australia, Switzerland, Canada and America.
Tour manager of the KRCA Reginald King is happy with the preparations of his team and thinks his players will do T&T proud.
He said, “We have the youngest team in the competition with players under 19 years of age, in fact, the average age of our boys is 14. We are happy to take them on what we see as a development tour and we are hoping that their cricket improves at the end of it. Although the guys are young we have some national pedigree in national under-15 players like Rajeev Ramnath who captained T&T, Liam Mamchan, Andrew Rambaran, Nickyle Jalim and Khaleem Mohammed. In addition with the experience of captain Quincy Babel as well as South East players Romario King and Alix Gopaul. All in all, we have the quality to make an impression.”
King explained that the tournament would be used for development of the players on his team.
He said: “While we will be going out there to win every match and to bring back the title, we are cognizant of the fact that this is a development tournament and tour for us, and we are looking the have all our players in action during the tournament. The team has settled in nicely on arriving and we are looking forward to our opening match.”
