Red Force lose Bravo, Pollard, Cooper, Rampaul & Narine

T&T’s cricket team has been dealt a severe blow heading into its Professional Cricket League (PCL) Four-day clash against the Windward Islands in St Lucia next week.

Chairman of the T&T selection panel, Alec Burns told the T&T Guardian that the five senior players are out for varying reasons.

Kieron Pollard indicated to the selectors that he needs time to work on his injury with his physiotherapist and will play some club cricket before coming back into the First Class set up.

Burns added that both Sunil Narine and Kevon Cooper indicated that they were not ready for the four-day tournament just yet and would like to work on their respective bowling actions. As a result, they will also to play club cricket for Queen’s Park before making themselves available.

Burns could not give a timeline as to when the players will be available saying: “They have indicated that they are unavailable until further notice.”

Pacer Ravi Rampaul is also out, as he is recovering from a side strain.

As far as Dwayne Bravo is concerned, Burns said, “Bravo has indicated to us that he is not available to play in the First Class format and hence we did not consider him.”

Meanwhile, just days after T&T lifting the Nagico Super-50 regional cricket championship title, team manager Manohar Ramsaran resigned and will be replaced by former national allrounder Roland Sampath.

Ramsaran informed the T&T Cricket Board (T&TCB) of his decision to step down in an e-mail earlier this week and it was accepted by the organisation’s executive which also approved the naming of Sampath.

The announcement was made yesterday by Dudnath Ramkessoon, Cricket Operations manager of the T&TCB. Despite an indifferent start to the 2014-2015 regional season late last year in the four-day league format, which will soon resume, Ramsaran left the position on a high as the home team played unbeaten in the recent Nagico Super50 limited overs competition, hosted for the second straight year in T&T.

President of the T&T CB Azim bassarath extended on his executive’s behalf his sincerest appreciation for the service rendered by Ramsaran, an active cricketer at Monroe Road Sports Club of which he is the president.

“As a former Minister of sports and MP and present club cricketer, Manohar brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the job of manager of the national cricket team. It is a very challenging position and he brought to bear all the qualities that helped the T&T team to its recent success in the regional tournament,” said Bassarath.

He said Ramsaran remains on the executive of the T&TCB and his support and guidance will still be counted on as the national organisation moves forward with its plans and programmes. Bassarath also wished Ramsaran all success in his future endeavours.

Bassarath also expressed his optimism that Sampath will continue the good foundation laid by Ramsaran saying he comes at a crucial time as T&T seek to claim dominance on the four-day league competition, a title which has eluded the national cricketers for several years.

“T&T have just won the Super50 crown and will be challenging strongly for the four-day title and we are expecting Sampath, who is a former successful national and Police Sports Club cricketer to bring to bear the seriousness of what needs to be done to achieve the team’s goals,” said Bassarath.