Parkites battle T&TEC for Sunday honours

A huge crowd is expected to show up today for the finals of the Carib Sunday League tournament between southern powerhouse T&TEC and defending champions Queen’s Park. All ingredients are there for a wonderful serving of cricket as today is a national holiday (Shouter Baptiste Liberation Day) and both teams are packed with West Indies players. Two in particular are sure to keep the turnstiles at the picturesque Guaracara Park busy and they are Keiron Pollard and Darren Bravo. 

The burly Pollard, one of the biggest hitters of the cricket ball and the Lara-like Darren Bravo will be turning up in the light blue colours of Queen’s Park trying to out the bright lights of T&TEC. Also on the defending champions side is another big hitter in Barbadian Dwayne Smith. The rustic southern venue is small and crowd almost feels part of the action, so today, they will be up close and personal with their stars. Manager of the Queen’s Park team Jeffery Guillen is confident. He said: “We will be playing to the best of our abilities and are confident of coming out on top in the final. We hope the cricket fans will come out and make the occasion a special one.”

T&TEC, in their first season in the Premier League will be no pushovers and the San Fernando club which has invested heavily in acquiring several top  players in the preseason will be playing hard against their more fancied opponents. However Peter Mohan, president of  T&TEC, believes that playing at Guaracara Park in Pointe-a-Pierre will give his team the advantage against Queen’s Park in the final and is hoping that a large crowd of supporters turn up to will the south-based team on to victory. He said the club has been preparing for some time for the Sunday League 50-Overs final and confirmed that their national players Mohammed, Emrit and Ramdin will be available for selection.

Mohan said victory against Queen’s Park would register a significant milestone in the club’s history and vindicate the decision of T&TEC management to invest money in building a championship winning team. “We hope to set an example by our performance that other corporate organisations can follow. No everyone is aware that T&TEC, though headquartered in south comprise all of Trinidad and Tobago and also fields a football team in the T&T Pro League,” said Mohan. QPCC are no strangers when it comes to success in the Sunday League having won the title on four occasions. They were the inaugural champions in 1994 and repeated in 1997, 2007 and 2010. Action gets off at 2.30pm.

Teams

QPCC: Justin Guillen (capt), Runako Morton, Darren Bravo, Keiron Pollard, Akiel Hosein, Dwayne Smith, Rishard Harris, Ricardo Paty, Sunil Narine, Amit Jaggernauth and Anthony Balgobin. Subs Andre Bowne, Marlon Barclay, Petrock Nicholas and Nicholas Alexis. Manager Jeffrey Guillen, coach David Furlonge.

T&TEC: Jason Mohammed (capt), Rayad Emrit, Manoj Sirju, Akiel Cooper, Kevon Cooper, Richard Kelly, Kwesi Blackburn, Anderson Beharry, Keegan Jaggessar, Visham Ramroop, Farrell Jugmohan, Ansil Bhagan, Azurdeen Mohammed, Denesh Ramdin,  Deepak Kumar and Jeewan Ramroop. Manager Peter Mohan, coach Mervyn Richardson.

Players to watch 

QPCC: Keiron Pollard, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Smith, Amit Jaggernauth and Sunil Narine. T&TEC: Jason Mohammed, Rayad Emrit, Denesh Ramdin, Kevon Cooper and Richard Kelly.

Head to head this season

On meeting in the Premiership, QPCC took first innings points.

Titles

QPCC - 4

T&TEC - 0

What’s at stake

Winners—$110,000

Runner-up—$70,000

PAST WINNERS

1994 -  QPCC

1995 - Moosai

1996 - Moosai

1997 - QPCC

1998 - Central Spts

1999 - Alecon Comets

2000 - FC Clarke Rd

2001 - Alescon Comets

2002 - Alescon Comets

2003 - Clico Preysal

2004 - Alecon Comets

2005 -PowerGen

2006 - Merryboys

2007 - QPCC

2008 - Merryboys

2009 - Merryboys 

2010 - QPCC