Barbados senior cricket team will visit Trinidad at the end of December to take part in a four-way T20 cricket festival at Guaracara Park in Pointe-a-Pierre organised by the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB). This was revealed by first vice-president of the TTCB, Dudnath Ramkessoon on Thursday.
The four teams vying for a cash prize will be T&T senior team, T&T ‘A’ team, T&T Academy team and Barbados. The tournament will run from December 28-30 and will take a round-robin format. Last year, the TTCB held a similar tournament at the same venue and it proved a tremendous success with the crowds coming out to support the series. On that occasion the foreign team was Guyana.
This tournament will also prove as a warm-up series for the national senior team before they defend their regional T20 title in T&T and Barbados in January. According to Ramkessoon: “We are still finalising the cash prize and so on but the festival is on and will take place just after the Christmas. We played this last year as a replacement for the annual North/South Classic and it made more sense having the national players take part in a T20 tournament rather than a four-day tournament with the regional T20 so close at hand.”
Ramkessoon, who is also chairman of the national senior selection panel added: “The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has asked that we submit our national team for the regional T20 by December 7, so we will name the team by December 6 and they will continue their training. This series will form part of their preparations.” The national team has had their training interrupted by the current inclement weather, as their first trial match carded for this coming Saturday has already been called off. “We have six trial matches planned but unfortunately we have had to call off the first one because ground staff at the National Cricket Centre (NCC) in Balmain, Couva, has not been able to prepare the pitch. “The rain has been belting down for the past few days and the venue will not be ready in time. We are hoping to get in the next five matches in order to give as many players a chance to address the selectors before we name the team.” In the meantime the national cricketers continue to train at the indoor facilities of the Sir Frank Worrell Cricket Centre.
(Source http://www.guardian.co.tt/sport/2011/11/26/barbados-comes-tt-cricket-festival)
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