Manager of the Trinidad and Tobago cricket team Omar Khan has come in for praise from president of the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB), Azim Bassarath.
Khan came back for his second stint as T&T manager for the Caribbean T20 series and achieved immediate success. Many cricket pundits across the region commented on the team’s mental strength and cohesiveness and this according to Bassarath was due to the efforts of Khan.
“I think Omar Khan’s professionalism rubbed off on the team. Ever since he came on board with the team, he has taken a very professional approach to his work and he leaves nothing to chance.
“During the tournament experts were commenting on the fact that the T&T team is united and focussed. This I think, was the work of Khan. He held many mental preparation programmes with the boys before they left and met with them one on one to set personal and team goals. “The players on the team respect him a lot and he gets them to respond. He also has a good working chemistry with Captain Daren Ganga and in the end it had a telling effect.” Also showering praises on Khan was Patrick Rampersad executive member of the TTCB. “Omar is really an excellent manager. We were fortunate in that West Indies’ loss was T&T’s gain. After being badly treated by the regional authorities, he came back and offered his services to T&T and he delivered for us.
“I think we would continue to reap success with him being there, as we look forward to the First Class series. He is a no-nonsense manager and the players have bought into his ideals.”
Khan had guided T&T to their first Champions League stint, when he took them to the Stanford T20 series in 2008. That was his last assignment for T&T, as he went on to manage the West Indies cricket team.
He had some good results, including a semi-final finish at the ICC Champions Trophy, a Test series win against England, a drawn series against Sri Lanka and a one day triumph also against Sri Lanka. He was then surprisingly replaced by former Test pacer Joel Garner and was sent to New Zealand with the West Indies U-19 team. Here he took a team that no one thought would have progressed past the first round, into the semi-final stage, where they lost to Pakistan.
