PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Windward Islands will hope their successful appeal to play their sixth round WICB first class championship match at the Queen’s Park Oval pays dividends against hosts Trinidad and Tobago this weekend.
Team manager Lockhart Sebastien told CMC Sports the Windwards had not played at the historic venue for the last five years and had made an appeal to the T&T Cricket Board to play the match at the Oval.
“We must thank the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board for allowing us to play at the Queen’s Park Oval,” said Sebastien.
“It has been five years since we played at the Oval and the young players all want to play at the best venues.
Windwards have had a miserable season, losing three of their four matches to date and with only a win over Combined Campuses and Colleges to show for their efforts.
They are sixth in the standings on 16 points and Sebastien said they would be looking to compete strongly, even though they were out of championship contention.
“We cannot win the title anymore but we still have a lot to play for. The two games we lost, we could have actually won them with a bit of luck. That has really affected us in this tournament,” he explained.
They have made two changes to the team that lost to the Leewards in the last round, with all-rounder Gary Mathurin and Miles Bascombe coming in for Donwell Hector and Keddy Lesporis.
T&T, meanwhile, will be strengthened by the return of rookie West Indies opener Adrian Barath and stylish left-hander Darren Bravo, both of whom are coming off injury.
Coach Colin Borde said the duo’s presence would be a lift for the team, already missing wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin, fast bowler Ravi Rampaul and all-rounder Kieron Pollard who are all on West Indies duty. Key all-rounder Dwayne Bravo is also out injured.
“We have the two young enterprising batsmen Adrian and Darren coming back into the team and they are sure to give the guys a boost,” Borde pointed out.
“They have both passed their respective fitness tests and they are ready for action.”
T&T, too, have struggled and with 21 points from four matches and just one win, captain Daren Ganga said they side wanted to close out their campaign strongly.
“We have two matches to go and we would like to end on a high note. We are searching for maximum points from our two games to end this campaign that has not been a good one.”
T&T are fifth in the standings, one point behind the fourth placed Leewards.
SQUAD:T&T – Daren Ganga (captain), Adrian Barath, Darren Bravo, Jason Mohammed, Daron Cruickshank, Gibran Mohammed, Navin Stewart, Justin Guillen, Sherwin Ganga, Amit Jaggernauth, Shannon Gabriel, Sunil Narine and Imran Khan.
WINDWARDS – Devon Smith (captain), Gary Mathurin, Andre Fletcher, Liam Sebastien, Lyndon James, Nelon Pascal, Miles Bascombe, Rawle Lewis, Shane Shillingford, Deighton Butler, Kenroy Peters, Tyrone Theophille, Graig Emmanuel.
