Vin­ode Mam­chan

Na­tion­al un­der-19 crick­et cap­tain Yan­nick Ot­t­ley is among 17 play­ers who have been in­vit­ed to take part in the T&T Crick­et Board (T&TCB) 2010 crick­et acad­e­my. The names of the play­ers were re­vealed yes­ter­day at a func­tion at the Sir Frank Wor­rell Crick­et Cen­tre in Bal­main, Cou­va. T&TCB ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber Su­ruj Ra­goonath ex­plained that the play­ers will be at the acad­e­my from yes­ter­day un­til De­cem­ber 5. Pres­i­dent of the T&TCB, Az­im Bas­sarath in his ad­dress said: "As ad­min­is­tra­tors, we con­sid­er it our du­ty to de­vel­op the avail­able tal­ent and po­ten­tial to its fullest.

The T&TCB's mis­sion state­ment is clear on this, to de­vel­op and sus­tain crick­et as the most suc­cess­ful­ly or­gan­ised sport in T&T and the na­tion­al team as the best in the West In­dies, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with its play­ers, zones, clubs, ad­min­is­tra­tors, af­fil­i­ates and all stake­hold­ers. Bas­sarath al­so used the op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­peat a decade old call of link­ing sport and ed­u­ca­tion.

"We at the T&TCB have, for many years, sought to have schol­ar­ships award­ed to young T&T ath­letes who ex­cel in sport and at the same time achieve Ter­tiary Lev­el En­trance re­quire­ments. In our an­nu­al 'A' Lev­el schol­ar­ship pro­gramme, it will be of im­mense long term ben­e­fit, should the Gov­ern­ment see it fit to award na­tion­al schol­ar­ships to out­stand­ing young crick­eters, male and fe­male, who have rep­re­sent­ed their coun­try with dis­tinc­tion while still ac­quir­ing the req­ui­site Uni­ver­si­ty en­try re­quire­ments.

IN­DUCTEES

Yan­ick Ot­t­ley, Kisson­dath Ma­gram, Teshawn Cas­tro, Derone Davis, Ke­iron Joseph, Yan­nic Car­ri­ah, Videsh Sookai, Ker­von Christ­mas, Ker­von Coop­er, Daniel St. Clair, Nicholas Alex­is, Steven Kat­wa­roo, Akiel Coop­er, Nicholas Sookdeosingh, Jahron Al­fred and Emile Ra­jah.