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Three
cheers for
T&T’s cricketers
T&T’s
latest million-dollar men returned home yesterday to lots
of fanfare at Piarco International. And why not?
The local boys, fondly referred to as the “Cinderella
Lads,” gave a clinical display in winning the Stanford
Twenty/20 tournament against Jamaica on Sunday night in
Antigua.
Connoisseurs of the game may argue that the final lacked
some degree of competitiveness as T&T cruised to victory,
dismissing what was considered to be a powerful Jamaica
batting line-up for just 91 runs in under 17 overs, and
then making light work of the total with more than half
of its overs to spare.
It must be noted that one year ago, Daren Ganga’s men
were beaten in the final, losing in the penultimate ball
to Guyana.
The pain from that experience must have left a scar in the
psyche of the local boys and it was evident during this
tournament that this T&T team was a hungry lot.
Against Barbados in the semi-final, T&T looked beaten
with five overs to go. The Bajans appeared to be cruising
into the finals. But somehow T&T dug deep and showed
a tremendous depth of character to squeeze their opponents
when it mattered most and sneak a surprising win.
When Guyana failed by one run to overhaul Jamaica’s
143 in the other thrilling semi-final, it set up what was
expected to be a blistering finale with some of the fiercest
hitters in the game on show. Instead, it was the slow bowling
of Dave Mohammed that stole the evening.
Mohammed, a left-arm wrist spinner, mysteriously in and
out of the West Indies team, completely knifed through the
heart of the Jamaican batting and a pumped-up William Perkins
and Lendl Simmons simply performed the final rites, smashing
the Jamaican bowlers to all parts of the boundary, to the
delight of the T&T fans who travelled to Antigua for
the game.
One of the outstanding qualities of this T&T victory
was the leadership of Ganga. Throughout the tournament,
commentators were constantly referring to his tactical skills
as well as the way he dealt with his younger players. Even
Bravo, the seasoned player on the team, spoke highly of
his captain and in Ganga T&T could well feel it has
is a genuine leader with much to offer.
The reality is that this Stanford tournament has now become
a showpiece for regional integration. Throughout the two
weeks, there were thousands of fans from across the Caribbean
travelling to Antigua to support their teams. And the hype
surrounding the games was matched by the atmosphere in which
some of the region’s top musical artistes were available
to make their presence felt.
There was the money too, of course. The richest tournament
in the history of the game left not only the players richer
for the experience but it certainly attracted more fans
to the game of cricket.
The main financier, Sir Alan Stanford, continues to invest
his money in the Caribbean. The idea, according to him,
is to get West Indies cricket back to where it was in the
seventies and eighties.
Given the amount of money that went into making this tournament,
there is every reason to believe that, if nothing else,
young people now have a real reason to feel that playing
cricket has its financial rewards.
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