BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Barbados Pride are hoping to use some of the momentum from Barbados Tridents’ Caribbean Premier League success to propel them in next month’s Regional Super50.
Tridents produced a massive upset in the domestic T20 franchise tournament earlier this month to win the CPL for the second time, and with a few players from the championship team involved the Pride setup, head coach Emmerson Trotman wants to capitalise.
“It’s nice to have a few of the Tridents players in our squad,” said Trotman.
“It will be a challenge. It will be nice if we could win because it was a good summer for Barbados teams in a number of regional tournaments, so there is some extra pressure but I think the players are more than capable of managing themselves and the expectations.”
Veteran left-hander Jonathan Carter, a member of the victorious Tridents side, has been named to lead Pride in this year’s November 6 to December 1 campaign.
Off-spinner Ashley Nurse, left-arm spinner Joshua Bishop, batsman Leniko Boucher, all-rounder Roshon Primus along with fast bowler Chemar Holder, also featured for Tridents recently.
And even though the side remains an inexperienced one especially with the West Indies players missing, Trotman said Pride were still confident of top honours.
“We expect to win the tournament, obviously. It’s going to be competitive and we look forward to the challenge every year,” Trotman explained.
“It’s an opportunity to expose a number of young players to a higher level of the game and I believe we have a good mix of players this year, of youth and seniors.
“We are looking to do well in the tournament and all of the teams will put up a good challenge, as there is a lot of talent throughout the Caribbean, so we are looking to get it all started.”
He added: “We are focussed on winning the tournament and I am not going to lower than this. But we have been successful in the past and produced a high number of international players which is very important.
“If we can get three or four guys out of the group advancing to the international stage, that’s also a sign of success, but our number one priority is to win the tournament.”
Pride will contest Group A in St Kitts alongside reigning champions Combined Campuses and Colleges, Jamaica Scorpions, invitational side Canada and hosts Leeward Islands.
Group B, meanwhile, will be staged in Trinidad and comprises last year’s losing finalists, Guyana Jaguars, Windward Islands Volcanoes, West Indies Emerging Players, United States and hosts Red Force.
Though Pride will be favoured to be one of the two teams emerging from the group to qualify for the semi-finals, Trotman said they were taking none of the other teams for granted.
“We are going to take everyone seriously. You never know. In 50 overs-a-side matches, anything can happen on the day,” he warned.
“All the teams are playing well and have good depth, including Canada who I have been watching play in a few ICC tournaments, so everyone will be competitive. We are very focussed.”
