Runako Morton will make his debut for Trinidad and Tobago in the upcoming Caribbean Twenty/20 Regional Tournament, which will take place from January 10 - 23. The Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) yesterday released the names of the players to represent this country and Morton was among the 14-man squad. Morton up until earlier this year represented the Leeward Islands but made a decision to play for T&T because the travelling to and fro from T&T to the Leeward Islands was getting difficult. Morton is married to a Trinidadian girl and has a child.
Chairman of the national selection panel Dudnath Ramkessoon welcomed Morton into the team. "We welcome him into the T&T set-up and we are hoping that he continues his good work that he started with the Leeward Islands. In the short time he had to impress the selectors, he did very well and it was difficult not to see him in the 14-man squad. He also performed very well in domestic cricket and we decided to give him a chance to show his worth with the senior team." Morton represented Queen's Park in domestic cricket and scored five centuries during the 2010 season. Making a return to the team is all rounder Richard Kelly, while left arm unorthodox spinner Dave Mohammed is a surprise omission.
According to Ramkessoon: "With two top all rounders missing from the team, we took our time to select the all rounders. We deliberated a lot over the all rounders and in the end we decided to go with Kelly and Kevon Cooper." Ramkessoon added that the team has the right blend of youth and experience and was a very difficult one to choose. "The team has the right blend in our opinion. It was not easy to choose giving the fact that so many players did not get a chance to address the selectors because of the bad weather. However, we are confident that this group of cricketers will do well at the tournament," he said.
Keiron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo will both miss the tournament because they are contracted to play in the Australian 'Big Bash' tournament 'Down Under'. The national team will play a practice match tomorrow against Queen's Park at a venue to be decided.
•The full squad is: Daren Ganga (Capt), Lendl Simmons, Runako Morton, Darren Bravo, Adrian Barath, Imran Khan, Sherwin Ganga, Denesh Ramdin, Sunil Narine, Kevon Cooper, Ravi Rampaul, Samuel Badree, Jason Mohammed and Richard Kelly. Manager - Omar Khan, coach - Kelvin Williams.