West Indies, Red Stripe: No surprises in T&T team (23 Sep 1997)

Tuesday, September 23, 1997

No surprises in T&T team

Trinidad Express

THERE are no surprises on the Trinidad and Tobago squad of 14, released yesterday by the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board of Control, to participate in the inaugural Red Stripe Bowl limited-overs Championships in Jamaica and Guyana from next week Saturday.

The team contains the five players - Brian Lara, Philip Simmons, Ian Bishop, David Williams, Mervyn Dillon - selected on the West Indies party to tour Sharjah and Pakistan late next month, as well as the trio - Suruj Ragoonath, Nigel Francis, Dinanath Ramnarine - chosen in the West Indies "A'' side for South Africa, also next month. The T&T squad also contains regular players Richard Smith, Andre Lawrence, Lincoln Roberts, Kenneth Hazel, national under-19 captain Daren Ganga and former West Indies leg-spinner Rajindra Dhanraj. Lara, the Windies vice-captain, will lead the team while Simmons has been chosen as his deputy and former West Indies off-spinner Rangy Nanan, the manager/coach.

T&T, who won the 50-overs tournament last year when it was known as the Shell Sandals competition, have been drawn in Group A in the first round along with the Windward Islands, newcomers Bermuda and hosts Jamaica. Group B will be contested in Guyana and involves Barbados, the Leeward Islands, debutants Canada and the hosts.

This country will tackle Bermuda and Jamaica next week Saturday and Sunday (October 4 and 5) respectively and face the Windwards on October 8.

The squad will practice today until Thursday from 2 p.m. at Queen's Park Oval and go into a five-day camp at the Oval on Friday. After the camp, which includes practice games on Saturday and Sunday, the players will have the day off on Wednesday before departing for Jamaica on Thursday.

The players selected to tackle T&T in the practice matches - Zaheer Ali, Eugene Antoine, Randy Baichan, Amarnath Basdeo, Marlon Black, Navin Chan, Imran Jan, Ricardo Paty, Deon Pierre, Dennis Rampersad, Leon Romero - are also requested to train with the team.

THE TEAM : Brian Lara (captain); Philip Simmons (vice-captain); Ian Bishop, Rajindra Dhanraj, Mervyn Dillon, Nigel Francis, Daren Ganga, Kenneth Hazel, Andre Lawrence, Lincoln Roberts, Suruj Ragoonath, Dinanath Ramnarine, Richard Smith, David Williams.

Source :: The Trinidad Express (https://www.trinidad.net/express/)