By Ravendra Kishore

The Malteenos Sports Club boys under-15 squad, warming up yesterday ahead of their clash with Trinidad and Tobago Schoolboys under-14 team this Saturday was confident about winning the game.

Speaking to Stabroek Sport, Manager of the Malteenos squad, former Berbice under-19 player, 2005-6, Damion Vantull was confident that his club can add to the woes being faced by the T&T squad led by former under-15 national player Safrasz Esau.

Moreover, the team  has dashing players like Vishal Narayan and Shakeel McNichols in the squad who have experience at this level while the rest of the squad is made up of first-timers who are looking to do their club proud.

The Trinidad and Tobago schoolboys team.

Manager of the Trinidad and Tobago squad, Headmaster Anthony Ramjit, said yesterday he is optimistic that the schoolboys would not suffer a whitewash.

According to Ramjit, the team, called the Trinidad and Tobago Primary School Cricket team, is made up of primary school students who were selected after excelling not only in cricket but in the academic year September 2007 to July 2008. He said too the team is not only blessed by the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board but is operating out of the Ministry of Education.

Ramjit added that while this tour is being used to enhance their lifestyles, the pupils are also here to develop their skills and as a reward for excellence in their academic studies.
Bonding
He added that he hopes this bonding from such a young age will bring cricketers from the two countries closer together so if they  make it to the West Indies team they would have already shared a bond.

Today the team is scheduled to take on the mighty Georgetown Cricket Club under-15 at Bourda while on Saturday they will take on Malteenos.
In their previous three games of the goodwill tour which took place Saturday last, they played an East Coast side at the Providence National Stadium and were dismissed for 99 but bowled pretty well. However, they let the East Coast squeeze home on 99-9.

In their second match they took on West Coast Demerara under-15 Sunday last with the West Coast side posting 193 in their 45-overs. The Trinidad boys put up a fight before being all out for 163.

In their third game which was played on Tuesday, they took on a Georgetown Combined Team and kept the score down to 162 in 35-overs but that proved too much for them as they were routed for 143.

Ramjit is hoping for better results but he added that the whole tour is to prepare the boys mentally for more competition as he hopes that this can be an annual event with Guyana fielding a team to travel to Trinidad for the next goodwill series.