TSATT stick with Jan as head coach

THE Tertiary Sport Association of TT (TSATT) will be moving ahead with Imran Jan as its head coach for the UWI World Universities T20 Cricket Tournament starting today at the Sir Frank Worrell Cricket Ground, St Augustine.

will be facing UWI at 6.30 pm in the day’s second affair, but questions arose over Jan’s role following allegations of impropriety over his appointment as assistant coach of the Red Force by the TT Cricket Board.

“We’ll be moving ahead with Imran as coach as planned,” president of TSATT, Ian Pritchard, succinctly confirmed to Newsday. Jan’s team will be going up against UWI, Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC), Oxford Marylebone Cricket Club University from England, and the USA Combined Universities. Pritchard deemed this an opportunity for local players, particularly younger ones moving from secondary schools to tertiary schools, to see that they can still play top-class cricket while gaining an education at local institutions.

“Players in secondary schools across TT can observe they can continue their education and engage in playing the sport they love at a high level.

“This prevents them from forcing trying to turn professional before this full development takes place,” he said.

Pritchard indicated that the incentive of finishing as a top five player in this competition and making it into pre-tournament Caribbean Premier League (CPL) camps shows the ambition of the project; one The UWI intends to carry out every year in different territories.

“We have the ability and talent in our tertiary institutions to make this top grade. Players such as Stephen Katwaroo with UWI, Vikash Mohan and TSATT’s Mark Deyal are a few names. This tournament bridges the gap between local and international talent like Oxford, it allows us to unearth more stars and it augers well for the future of the game, especially for youngsters,” Pritchard continued.

He made it clear the foreign talent is a game-changer, as it builds the competitive landscape locally, encourages regional players to up their game and push for a higher level personally. With players focusing on strength, conditioning and total training, Pritchard hopes to see more tournaments like this arise so such athletes have more showcases to implement what they trained for into practise.