U15 selector fancies Trinidad and Tobago chances at CWI tourney

CHAIRMAN of the TT Under-15 cricket selection panel Glen Dwarika fancies the chances of this year’s team as it is a balanced squad. The TT Under-15 cricketers will compete at the Cricket West Indies Under-15 tournament in Antigua bowling off in early April.

There has been an adjustment by CWI in determining who is eligible to play based on age. As a result, 11 players on the TT squad last year are still eligible and have returned to play this year.

Brendan Boodoo will captain the 2023 team and Yasir Dean will serve as the vice-captain. Both players were members of the team in 2022.

The team was announced after the Price Club Supermarket Under-15 North-South Classic at the National Cricket Centre in Couva on Wednesday. Christian Lall, named on the TT team, starred with the bat scoring a century for North. South still managed to prevail by five runs.

The North-South Classic was the final chance for Under-15 cricketers to impress the selectors.

“The team should do very good because we have a real balanced team,” Dwarika said.

“You have good fast bowlers and a variety of different spinners. We have a left-arm orthodox (and) a right-arm wrist spinner.”

Zakilon Beckles and Arion Mohammed are expected to lead the fast bowling attack.

Dwarika said Ra’ed Ali Khan is a left-arm spinner and reserve Amrit Pittiman can also be an asset with his left-arm spin if called upon.

The chief selector believes quality spin is integral to success as most Caribbean batsmen nowadays are capable when facing spin.

“Gone are the days when you use to say islanders can’t play spin very well. Remember now some of these islanders are producing spinners…so we can’t take anything for granted again.”

Speaking about the batting, Dwarika said, “You had Christian Lall. He made a century (in the North-South Classic)…he did not really get much runs in the (Scotiabank NextGen Under-15) tournament. He got 50, 40 but he was able to come good that day, so he showed his potential.”

Many of the TT Under-15 players have been playing in the top division in the Secondary Schools Cricket League called the premiership division. Some of them are also playing in the championship (second) division.

Dwarika said that experience would have helped the players prepare for the regional tournament. “Most of these guys are playing for the top colleges, so the experience they would have gained playing against each other augurs well. They are playing a lot of cricket…they were playing consistently.”

SQUAD:

Brendan Boodoo (captain), Yasir Dean (vice-captain), Alejandro Kassiram, Christian Lall, Zakilon Beckles, Darius Batoosingh, Dimitri Ramjattan, Addi Ramsaran, Christiano Ramnanan, Ra’ed Ali Khan, Ganesh Gobin, Zane Maraj, Seyon Charles, Arion Mohammed

Reserves: Renaldo Fournillier, Amrit Pittiman, Israel Gonzales