Naz Ya­coob

T&T and West In­dies open­ing bats­man Adri­an Barath who has been suf­fer­ing from a dam­aged ham­string over the past six weeks will test the in­jury to­day in the T&T Crick­et Board's Pre­mier­ship League. The pint-sized right-hand­ed bats­man is ex­pect­ed to turn out for FC Clarke Road Unit­ed in a cru­cial Round Three clash against Ale­scon Comets at Pierre Road Recre­ation Ground in Char­lieville. A fi­nal de­ci­sion will be tak­en on his fit­ness just be­fore the start of the game at 10 am.

And sev­er­al of this coun­try's na­tion­al crick­eters who are en­joy­ing a week­end off from the Re­gion­al Four-Day Cham­pi­onship, will be on show to­day at venues through­out the the coun­try. In­spi­ra­tional cap­tain Dar­ren Gan­ga will be at the helm of Ale­scon Comets, when they host FC Clarke Road the "Pe­nal Boys" in a cru­cial en­counter. The "Pride of Char­lieville" will al­so be bol­stered by the in­clu­sion of the re­gion's top all­rounder in 2010. The in­clu­sion of both play­ers will cer­tain­ly en­hance the chances of Comets in their bid for cham­pi­onship ho­n­ours.

RIGHT: Promis­ing fast bowler Ker­von Christ­mas who bagged eight for 57, for Ce­ram­ic Mer­ry Boys Sports against Wan­der­ers last week­end, will lead his team's bowl­ing at­tack against Ra­hamut's Ever­green Sports to­day at Ser­pen­tine Road. Above in pho­to, Christ­mas send­ing down one of his fiery de­liv­er­ies against Wan­der­ers. Pho­to: AN­THO­NY HAR­RIS

Comets are cur­rent­ly sec­ond on the 10-team-stand­ings with 32 points, 19 shy of the un­beat­en Ce­ram­ic Mer­ry Boys Sports on 50. Clarke Road holds down third place with 24 points and an­oth­er con­sis­tent show­ing in ex­pect­ed from the well-knit­ted and dis­ci­plined team. Lead­ing Mer­ry Boys will be go­ing all out for a hat­trick of wins in the se­ries, when they en­ter­tain Ra­hamut's Ever­green from Pluck Road in Fyz­abad. With home ad­van­tage at Ser­pen­tine Road on their side, and Richard Kel­ly on a break from na­tion­al du­ties, Mer­ry Boys will start favourites to com­plete the hat­trick. In a "Cen­tral Der­by" Tile De­pot Cen­tral Sports will tacke Cli­co Preysal Sports at their new home venue–In­vaders Recre­ation Ground in Fe­lic­i­ty.

Fiery pac­er, Shan­non Gabriel will turn out for Preysal. Both teams have been in­con­sis­tent this sea­son, and the side which re­mains fo­cused is ex­pect­ed to come out on top. At Gilbert Park in Cal­i­for­nia, Queen's Park Crick­et Club has been strenght­ened by the in­clu­sion of skip­per Justin Guillen, off-spin­ner Sunil Nar­ine and all­rounder, Daron Cruik­shank for the con­test against the William Perkins-led W Con­nec­tion Wan­der­ers. The "Parkites" sev­enth in the stand­ings will have the edge against the David Williams-charges who have played poor­ly in their two open­ing match­es.

And at Syne Vil­lage in Pe­nal, dropped T&T left-arm spin­ner Dave Mo­hammed, wick­et­keep­er Gibran Mo­hammed and mid­dle-or­der bats­man, Sher­win Gan­ga will line-up for de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons Pow­er­Gen Sports against new­com­ers UTT. The "Elec­tric­i­ty Boys" third in the ta­ble on 31 points are ooz­ing with high volt­age, and the young UTT team will in for a shock against their hosts. Mid­dle-or­der bats­man Ja­son Mo­hammed who par­tic­i­pat­ed with Pow­er­Gen Sports in 2009, will turn out for T&TEC in the South Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion. Match­es start at 10 am.

Stand­ings

Point stand­ings af­ter two com­plet­ed rounds:

Ce­ram­ic Mer­ry Boys Sports 50 pts,

Ale­scon Comets, 32,

Pow­er­Gen Sports 31,

FC Clarke Road Unit­ed 24,

Cli­co Preysal Sports 23,

Tile De­pot Cen­tral Sports 22,

Ra­hamut's Ever­green Sports 22,

Queen's Park Crick­et Club 21,

UTT 15, W Con­nec­tion Wan­der­ers 14.

Round Three-Fix­tures - To­day & To­mor­row

Mer­ry Boys Sports v Ever­green Sports at Ser­pen­tine Road;

Cen­tral Sports v Preysal Sports at Fe­lic­i­ty;

Comets v Clarke Road at Char­lieville;

Wan­der­ers v Queen's Park at Gilbert Park;

Pow­er­Gen Sports v UTT at Syne Vil­lage.