(Trinidad Express) Although much of Trinidad and Tobago’s Caribbean Twenty20 preparations were hampered by rain, national coach Kelvin Williams still expects his charges to be ready for their title defence.
And Williams believes their trip to Barbados this week for a four-team T20 Festival will play a big role in fine-tuning for the regional competition.
Rain kept the T&T players indoors for the most part of the last two months and their final preparation, a four-team T20 Festival at Guaracara Park, Pointe-a-Pierre, was abandoned last week because of inclement weather, leaving the national team desperate for match practice.
Luckily, the rain eased up long enough last week for Denesh Ramdin’s men to have two practice matches at Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain.
The games ended with mixed results as Ramdin’s team won the first outing by 78 runs, but lost the second by two runs.
Williams said those practice matches and at least three more games in Barbados this week should be enough to ensure his team is ready for what he is expecting to be a keenly-contested Caribbean T20 tournament, bowling off next Monday in Antigua.
He also insisted that he got what he wanted from T&T’s two practice matches at the Oval and is looking forward to the trip to Barbados, where his players will be hoping to cap off their preparations by winning the festival, which also involves Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC), Barbados and a CO Williams All Star XI.
“I thought the two games in the Oval served us quite well as far as our preparations are concerned. I think the first match was not what we expected…batting first and getting 133 and then restricting the opposition to 55. But the second game I believe we got something out of it,” said Williams.
“Yes, we lost the game, but I was pleased with the effort shown by the guys. Chasing a target always creates problems for us and that shows that that is an area we need to improve on before the tournament.
“You are always under pressure when you are chasing, but to get to 121, in our second hit out in the middle, chasing that target (123), I thought was a good effort from the guys,” he added.
While the top order is a concern for now, Williams is confident his batsmen will deliver when the regional tournament comes around and says their trip to Barbados will be the perfect way to work on the problem areas and to get the team into competition mode with the Caribbean T20 just a week away.
“Yes, the batting is always a concern when we are chasing, but I always expect these guys to come good. When we get to Barbados I expect to see a better performance…a better showing from the batting,” said Williams.
“I think we will have three tough games and I think it will cap off our preparations. I think it will give us time to look at areas where we need to improve and it will be good practice to have just before the Caribbean Twenty20.”
The T&T coach is also expecting a big challenge from all the teams in the regional competition, but is confident his players will be up for it.
“I believe all teams could be a challenge in a T20. At the end of the day, every team would like to beat Trinidad and Tobago because of the brand of cricket that we are playing.
“I expect a big challenge from all our opposition and I think it is something we could withstand, but we have to play well on the day and we have to play as a team. If we don’t play as a team, then we could find ourselves in some problems,” Williams concluded.
