The entire executive of the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB) will meet with management and captains of the Red Force team today, as they continue their post mortem of this country's performance during the Regional First Class tournament.
T&T finished second in the WICB President's Cup and then lost to the Windwards in the semi-finals of the Headley/Weekes Trophy. The defeat against the Windwards left fans very unhappy as they went under by 234 runs, to the same team they defeated by 185 runs in the league phase.
President of the TTCB, Azim Bassarath revealed that he and his executive will meet with the two captains Rayad Emrit and Denesh Ramdin, as well as manager Manohar Ramsaran and coach Kelvin Williams at 6pm this evening.
"We will have our de-briefing session this evening at the National Cricket Centre from 6pm. We have invited firstly the two captains because Rayad Emrit and Denesh Ramdin both captained the team. We have also included in that the manager Manohar Ramsaran and the coach Kelvin Williams.
"I want to make it clear to the public that we are not hosting these meetings to point fingers at anyone. The tournament is done and over there is nothing we can do to change the result but what we can do is to draw from the players, certain information that we can build on. We are looking for a positive meeting with the players. We are looking forward and not in the blame game."
Bassarath said that the most important aspect of the exercise is getting information from the players on what they think, should be done, be it in preparation or actual matches, that would lead to better results. The last time T&T won the regional First class title was way back in 2006 under the leadership of Daren Ganga. Prior to this, they won the title in 1985 under the guidance of Rangy Nanan.
Bassarath added that he himself as president of the board, has some ideas and he thinks the members of his executive will also come with ideas.
The Moruga resident said he went out into the streets of Princes Town where took the opportunity to hear from the general public. "I took to the streets in Princes Town and heard the views of the people. They are very interested in the cricket and they obviously had their say on the matter. I have taken note of the some of the suggestions and I will take it along with me to the board meeting."
Bassarath added that the TTCB will be taking a very detailed view of all matters surrounding the national team performance in order to make the necessary changes.
"We have a committee in place that has written a paper on the overhaul of our domestic cricket and we are going to take this into consideration. When we made changes to our domestic structure we said at the time it was dynamic. The clubs are crying for change and we are most likely going to revert to three-day cricket for the next season. We will look to play 90 overs in a day, so that the batsmen would have longer time out there batting and would not have to rush. This would lead to players getting accustomed to playing long innings which is a major problem for us.
"The TTCB is also going to take a look at the pitches. We are going to conduct tests on all the major pitches in the country and bring them up to standard, as part of the complete overhaul."
After meeting with the management team today, Bassarath would then meet individually with the players from Wednesday.