T&T captain Daren Ganga said he was overjoyed by his team's victory over Jamaica in the CT20 tournament on Saturday night. The victory not only left T&T in the final of the tournament against English team Hampshire but also assured T&T of a place in the Airtel T20 Champions League later this year. Ganga said the members of his team really worked hard for the victory and were proud of their efforts. "We still have the job to complete in defeating Hampshire in the finals and we are going to come hard at them," Ganga said on the eve of last night's final.
"Since last year, when we lost the semi-final to Guyana, the boys have been anxious to repay the fans and we did that tonight. The boys are really happy at the moment and it shows how hard work pays off.
"Man to man we know what playing in the Champions League meant to our cricket and we are happy to have a crack at it again. I want to thank all the members of my team for their excellent work and this victory is even sweeter given the fact that we did not play with our full strength team." Missing from the tournament were Keiron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo who opted to play in the Australian Big Bash.
T&T went into the finals last night as the only unbeaten team in the tournament. They finished the prelims with three wins and a no-result and defeated Jamaica in the semis. T&T played at the inaugural Champions League tournament in 2009. The national players were told to put their celebrations on hold until they won the tournament, according to manager Omar Khan.
Khan said the players had a good time on the field at the end of the Jamaica match. "We spent about an hour in the dressing room celebrating but that was it. I told the guys the job is not finished and we must finish off Hampshire and then I would have nothing to tell them." Khan added that the boys went back to the Golden Sands Hotel and retired to bed around 1 am. Victory will guarantee T&T US$ 62,500.
