Narine arrives to give T&T boost

In dire need of a lift after their first round loss to Barbados in the opening match of the Nagico Super50 series, T&T’s Red Force will receive a major boost today with the arrival of mystery spinner Sunil Narine.

The wily Narine missed the first match as he was flying in from South Africa where he represented the Cape Cobras in their domestic T20 tournament. 

While the national players go through their final drill this morning for the match against the Leewards in Tobago tomorrow, Narine will head straight into the game without any practice. It is a chance T&T will have to take because they need to defeat the Leewards and Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) to qualify for the semi-finals.

Narine, currently ranked among the top three spinners in the world in the shorter version of the game, was conspicuous by his absence in T&T’s less than impressive bowling performance against the Bajans on Sunday.

A century from Jonathon Carter and a blitzy 83 from West Indies player Dwayne Smith paved the way for a substantial Barbados score of 269 which the home team never seriously threatened.

Team manager Manohar Ramsaran said yesterday Narine’s presence will certainly add depth to T&T’s attack.

He noted that the team members fell down in all departments in their opening game. 

“Our bowlers were caught off guard when the Bajan batsmen came hard at them early on. The fielding was also not of the best as the players dropped some catches and the batting was a far cry from what we have come to expect from the team. So all in all, we fell down in every department and the players will be looking for an immediate turnaround.”

Ramsaran, who recently took over as manager of the team from Omar Khan, added: “We had a very good meeting after the match. The players were very quiet in the dressing room at first because they were very disappointed. However, we were able to keep a very good meeting afterwards and the senior men spoke on the way forward.”

T&T will meet the Leewards at Shaw Park in Tobago tomorrow and chairman of the national organising committee Azim Bassarath says that everything is on spot for the game and the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB) is hoping for a full house.

Following this game there will be a clash between CCC and Barbados on Thursday, also at Shaw Park.