Anyone who dis-approves of franchise cricket will not be too happy tonight, as it may well be a case of T&T versus T&T in the Caribbean Premier League T20 tournament.
When Dwayne Bravo and his men run out to battle the Barbados Tridents they would see Rayad Emrit, Keiron Pollard, Ravi Rampaul, Akeal Hosein and Navin Stewart in blue. Five players from T&T are on the Barbados Tridents team and even the captain is Trini, in the form of Keiron Pollard.
The Tridents would start as favourites in this clash having won their two games in emphatic fashion thus far. Red Steel's only outing was against St Lucia Zouks and they were left to chase a huge 180 to win their game, when rain forced an abandonment.
Tridents the defending champions have been playing good cricket under the leadership of Pollard and took away a comfortable 49-run win over last season's runners-up Guyana Amazon Warriors. They then defeated the Jamaican Tallawahs with Chris Gayle on board by 16 runs on Tuesday night, also at Kensington Oval in Barbados.
Manager of the T&T Red Steel Colin Borde believes that his team has the quality to topple Tridents at their home venue. "They are currently the inform team, they have showed that with two very good victories but every game is a new one and once we get to match time, we will be going all out to dominate and win.
"The more time the guys have spent together, the better they are playing, having a look at them in training, they are coming along really nicely and this is a good sign.
"The senior players have taken charge and the atmosphere around the camp is great. The guys have being working very hard since arriving in Barbados, the good thing is that they have knowledge of each other and how quickly they transfer that to the foreign players is critical.
"We are up against a quality captain and a quality opposition so we have to be switched on from ball one to the final ball. Focus is the key in these games and we have men who have played the game all over the world, so understanding what is needed in certain conditions should be no problems."
Red Steel will be hoping to pick up a win on the road and will be hoping that the elements stay away. The weather forecast for Bridgetown for Thursday night is cloudy but no rain expected. This is welcome news for the T&T Red Steel, as well as the Tridents who will be looking to keep that 100 percent win record at home.
The T&T Red Steel will keep a team meeting around lunch time today at the Hilton Barbados, where the team will be finalised and game strategy worked on.
Teams:
T&T Red Steel: Dwayne Bravo (capt), William Perkins, Cameron Delport, Kamran Akmal, Jacques Kallis, Yohan Botha, Darren Bravo, Samuel Badree, Derone Davis, Miguel Cummins, Javon Searles, Jason Mohammed, Samuel Badree, Sulieman Benn, Kevon Cooper. Head coach Simon Helmot, assistants David Williams and Imran Jan.
Barbados Tridents: Keiron Pollard (capt), Ravi Rampaul, Navin Stewart, Akeal Hosein, Rayad Emrit, Ashley Nurse, Jonathan Carter, Shai Hope, Dilshan Munaweera, Dwayne Smith, Jason Holder, Jeevan Mendis, Kyle Corbin, Shoaib Malik and Robin Petersen. Coach Robin Singh, manager Desmond Haynes.
RED STEEL/TRIDENTS HEAD TO HEAD
2013 at Kensington Oval: T&T Red Steel 52 all out (12.5ovs)(D Jacobs 13, Ross Taylor 11, Shakib Al Hasan 6/6, Shannon Gabriel 2/18, Jason Holder 2/19) vs Barbados Tridents 53/6 (Jonathan Carter 14, Fidel Edwards 5/22) - Barbados Tridents won by 4 wkts.
2014 at Grenada: Barbados Tridents 124/6 (20)(Shane Dowrich 37, Shoaib Malik 21, Jason Holder 17no, Dwayne Bravo 2/17, Kevin O'Brien 2/6) vs T&T Red Steel 125/3 (17.3ovs)(Ross Taylor 62, Darren Bravo 54no, R Rampaul 2/18) - Red Steel won by 7 wkts.
2014 at St Kitts: Barbados Tridents 174/5 (20ovs)(Raymond Reifer 65no, Shoaib Malik 35, Keiron Pollard 34, William Perkins 24, Samuel Badree 2/20) vs T&T Red Steel 105 all out (Nicolas Pooran 33, Jason Holder 4/27, R Emrit 3/23) - Tridents won by 69 runs.
TRIDENTS LEAD RED STEEL 2-1.