T&T cricketers will have to get up early this morning and head to Kensington Oval in Barbados as the management has planned an intense session from 9 am to 12 noon.
The players arrived in Barbados last night at 8.15 pm and settled at the Golden Sands Hotel and after a few hours of rest they will be up and about this morning going through their drills as they prepare to face the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) tomorrow at 2 pm in their Super50 semifinal clash.
T&T has targeted winning two titles this season–the T20 (which they have already won) and the Super50–which they are in Barbados challenging for. They have also targeted getting into the finals of the Regional First Class tournament and they are in the semis against Jamaica from May 4 in that country.
Prior to the 2013 regional cricket season the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB) put a project management team in place to handle the national team. This team was headed by Baldath Mahabir and included coach David Williams, manager Omar Khan, physio Oba Gulston and chief selector Dudnath Ramkessoon.
The unit got together and prior to the team leaving for Barbados, Kelvin Williams, who worked as coach of the team when David was on West Indies duty, was used to work with pacer Shannon Gabriel. Former Test left arm spinner Raphick Jumadeen was called up to work with the spinners and they did that on Monday.
However the team's bugbear remains the batting and today their batters will be given extended sessions in the nets.
According to coach David Williams: "This is nothing new to us, the batsmen know what they have to do and they need to go out there and get the business done. After the poor display against Barbados, they need to work hard at training, hit some balls in the middle of the bat and get some confidence.
"Fifty overs is a lot of cricket and they will need to have the right mindset for the game. We got the better of the CCC in the prelims but every game is tough and the guys have to focus well on doing the right things. Anything can happen in a cricket match but we are confident that we will get into the finals.
"We have some experienced players and they need to lead from the front. Adrian Barath at the top of the order has been in form but failed in the last game. He needs to dig deep and use all his experience to give us a good start along with Lendl Simmons."
T&T team
Denesh Ramdin (captain/wicketkeeper), Adrian Barath, Rayad Emrit, Shannon Gabriel, Sherwin Ganga, Justin Guillen, Akeal Hosein, Imran Khan, Jason Mohammed, Khesan Yannick Ottley, Nicholas Pooran (wicketkeeper), Marlon Richards, Lendl Simmons.
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