Vin­ode Mam­chan

The T&T Crick­et Board (TTCB) is plan­ning to keep the suc­cess­ful na­tion­al un­der-19 play­ers to­geth­er. This is the word from pres­i­dent of the board Az­im Bas­sarath. The na­tion­al Un­der-19 crick­et team re­cent­ly won the TCL Chal­lenge re­gion­al un­der-19 one day ti­tle and placed sec­ond in the league com­pe­ti­tion. "We hop­ing to keep the play­ers to­geth­er, so that they can build on their good foun­da­tion," said Bas­sarath.

"We have met and very soon we are go­ing to in­form the play­ers on what plans we have in mov­ing for­ward. One of the peren­ni­al prob­lems we have had is play­ers per­form­ing pret­ty well at the youth com­pe­ti­tions and then dis­ap­pear­ing. We have not­ed this and the na­tion­al team prepa­ra­tions com­mit­tee is com­ing up with a plan that would as­sist in bridg­ing the gap be­tween the youth and se­nior lev­els." Bas­sarath con­tin­ued: "They are on the right path and this win shows that they are ben­e­fit­ing from what is be­ing of­fered to them from the TTCB and their clubs.

"We at the TTCB are very se­ri­ous in­deed about the de­vel­op­ment of young crick­eters and when a team goes out and per­forms like this, it tells us that our de­vel­op­ment pro­grammes are work­ing.

"Pri­or to the team leav­ing for their re­gion­al as­sign­ment in St Lu­cia, they went in­to camp un­der the guid­ance of An­tho­ny Gray and Roland Sam­path. They were giv­en every­thing that was nec­es­sary to have a suc­cess­ful camp and the board was right with them through­out their prepa­ra­tions. "We did not just ask our play­ers to go out there and bring glo­ry to Trinidad and To­ba­go but we gave them all the help nec­es­sary to make their tour a suc­cess."