We are going to win

YANNICK QUINTAL

PRESENTATION COLLEGE San Fernando cricket team have come a long way from playing second fiddle in the school’s sporting interests to becoming a mainstay on the grounds of one of south Trinidad’s most prestigious schools.

Presentation, during the 2019 season, won seven titles including the National Championship, for the first time in 26 years, and they have secured a spot in the Secondary Schools Cricket League Premiership Division.

Newsday sat down with head coach Rydell Ramsaran, TT Under-16 captain Tariq Mohammed, team manager Carlyle Jalim and the school’s vice-principal, Kenny Mootoosingh, to talk about the team’s 2019 performances and their plans for the 2020 Premiership season.

Here is the fourth and final part of the interview...

NEWSDAY: So (Presentation) are in the Premiership now. First year in the Premiership. What are the expectations? Are (you) just going to go out and win the whole thing again or, I don’t want to say ‘take it easy’ but see what (can be done) this season?

KM: I challenge coach to win!

TM: We are going to win.

KM: I have told our coach that we are going to win Premiership next year. I spoke to Hillview’s principal and I told him that the Presentation Colleges (San Fernando and Chaguanas) are coming after him. They won the Under-14 National, we won the Under-16 National. We are coming out for Hillview.

RR: The job of winning the Premiership isn’t an easy job of course. Our players need to work ten times as hard. We need to up our training. We need to become fitter mentally and physically. It’s a lot of hard work. And we know that the school is making the demand, the players also have been saying that they’re coming to win, so I might have to fall in gear. But we have our work set out to win the Premiership.

NEWSDAY: Such a political answer, Mr Ramsaran. Tariq, winning or losing, which one?

TM: We winning. As coach say, their mindset is already there. I didn’t think our goal was to win National championship, we just wanted to get promoted, but we say, ‘Wait nah, we good enough...we could take this one step further.’ And that’s how we went and I think that the players realise that we have the ability to win Premiership first year in.

CJ: One of the things I want to mention is the education aspect. The system that we have in place. We have a guy designated to the cricketers, and our sportsmen in school. So, in playing cricket, you lose a lot of school time. So we have this guy designated to the cricketers. You don’t get your work you go to him, and you get it. His name is Idrees Ali. So we have him there. If Tariq is having problems with a certain maths problem, he could go to him. A certain Physics problem he could go to him.

KM: Me! (He teaches Physics at the school)

CJ: Right! Well you know what I mean. We have him there. So I think the teachers in one board we have everybody so we are getting good support from that aspect of it, which I think is a problem when you talk to the other schools, if they don’t have this in place. Now if Tariq wasn’t doing good in school, his father could have pulled him out from playing cricket this year, because he would have to stay home and prepare for his CXC exams. And once you put that in place on which Presentation College, they have that in place, we have no problems from the parents, we don’t have any problems with the guys missing out work and catching up on it.

NEWSDAY: Tariq I should ask you this because I’m all about school. What subjects are you doing for CXC?

TM: Sciences – (including) physics, chemistry, biology. And compulsory subjects like maths, English A, literature, geography and social studies.

NEWSDAY: So let’s say cricket wasn’t the No 1 thing for you. With those subjects, what was the occupation you would pursue, if cricket wasn’t there?

TM: If not cricket, I want to become a teacher. A Geography teacher. Or Biology.

KM: I personally made a commitment to take him through exams where I’m offering classes free of charge and other lower level (forms) like Form 3, 4 and 5 and so on.

NEWSDAY: Championships for free schooling sounds like a good trade.

KM: Yeah. The subjects I can’t teach for those in the modern studies area we have teachers on board. So we’re willing to help these guys because we know that they’re spending an entire day out there and they’re missing a lot of work. So we want them to do well in both academics and sports.

NEWSDAY: Final comments?

RR: Well I brought a lot on board in terms of, well I recently completed Level Three, so all those best practices that are now involved in the sport of cricket, I have that knowledge. I am only now learning as this is my second year with the school so again I am looking forward to the Premiership season.

KM: We would also want to thank some people. The manager of Rollin Tyre has been helpful. Every year he sponsors uniforms. We have Clarke Road Sports Club to thank. Khalid’s BBQ from Corinth – they sponsored lunches for us. Yes, we did have box lunches in the early stages.

CJ: There’s also one other thing I want to make mention of. People tend to think that you’re coming into Presentation College, or these big prestigious schools, that everything comes to you. And what I want to let everybody know is that, we sell Curry-Q, we sell tickets, we sell everything to raise money to play cricket. We already start a fund-raiser for next year’s season, which is selling raffle sheets. So we’re like the other schools raising funds. But again, if you don’t have a good plan ahead for what you want, you will not get it, and that’s what we are doing.

RR: And we need coverage, we need coverage at the newspaper level etcetera so sponsors could come on-board, but when nobody knows about the cricket? Everybody knows about the football, and they’re seeing it on television. But cricket? You hardly get an article. So if we get that, then maybe sponsors may be interested in coming on-board and supporting these young cricketers for brighter futures.