St Benedict’s begin cricket journey

St Benedict's College will try to prove that the school is more than just a football school, when the 2018 PowerGen Secondary Schools 50-over Cricket League bowls off at 10 am, today.

St Benedict’s are one of eight teams that will battle for the premiership division title. The other teams competing in the premiership this season are Naparima College, Signal Hill Secondary, Fatima College, Barrackpore West Secondary, Carapichaima East Secondary, Presentation College Chaguanas and defending champions Hillview College.

Two matches will be played today with St Benedict’s facing Naparima at the Daren Ganga Recreational Ground in Barrackpore, while Fatima will make the journey to Tobago to play Signal Hill. Round one continues on Thursday with Barrackpore West coming up against Carapichaima East at the Barrackpore West school ground, while Presentation tackles Hillview at the Presentation school ground.

This will be the first time that St Benedict’s will play in the top division of school’s cricket. St Benedict’s earned promotion to the premiership division after winning the championship south division last season. St Benedict’s won all seven of their matches last season in the championship south division.

Forgenie said the team wants to give St Benedict’s a name in cricket and are not only concentrating on defeating their fellow southerners Naparima in round one.

“We not really motivated by beating Naps, but I think one thing we need to do is show people out there that Benedict’s is more than just a football school because at the end of the day we don’t have a sponsor.”

Forgenie said since 2012, St Benedict’s have been consistently producing national players including Jyd Goolie, Tevin Robertson and Daniel Williams.

Forgenie knows it will be challenging to play in the premiership. “It is going to be testing, but we have no choice we have to be ready. We spoke about what it takes to compete in the premiership. It is up to them now to go and execute.”

National youth cricketers Crystian Thurton and Mbeki Joseph are expected to lead the St Benedict’s batting, while Leeron Peters will lead the bowling attack.

Forgenie said, “He (Thurton) was the championship cricketer of the year last year and Mbeki Joseph - captain of the national Under-17 last year he is here. Mbeki is going to captain the team because he led the team to the regional title. Leeron Peters is probably (one of our best bowlers), he took a couple wickets for us last year in the championship division.”

ROUND ONE FIXTURES

Today

St Benedict’s College vs Naparima College, Daren Ganga Recreational Ground
Signal Hill Secondary vs Fatima College, Tobago

Thursday
Barrackpore West Secondary vs Carapichaima East Secondary, Barrackpore West
Presentation College Chaguanas vs Hillview College, Presentation