Central Sports pleased with titles in 2024...hunt more success in new year

CENTRAL Sports owner/manager Richard Ramkissoon credits his club’s 2024 domestic success to its never-say-die spirit and target-driven approach, which both played critical roles in fueling the capture of two of three national titles: the National League (three-day) and T20 Festival.

Guided by player/coach and former Trinidad and Tobago Red Force fast bowler Rayad Emrit, and captained by the double T20 World Cup-winning ex-West Indies opener Lendl Simmons, Central Sports proved a cut above the rest this past season.

Despite losing their opening tie against Bess Motors Marchin Patriots in the league, Central Sports rebounded positively and rallied back to win the 2024 trophy. Likewise in the T20 Festival, they played unbeaten en route to retaining their title.

However, the coveted 50-over trophy evaded them this year. Although Central Sports did reach the final, they fell to a superior Marchin Patriots in their first season in the top flight.

Looking back on a fruitful year, Ramkissoon said when they started the season, the philosophy was always to win, not survive.

“After we lost outright to Marchin in the first league game, the team showed depth and mettle and we were able to come back and win. They played excellent cricket but we held strong, played some good, bad and reasonable good games. All in all, we were pleased with the eventual result.”

With the title-winning T20 squad, Ramkissoon knew beforehand, the team he put together to defend their crown was an excellent one. Bajan Akeem Jordan was added to the team for this tournament.

He rued, however, his team’s crucial blunder in the 50-over final.

“I think we had that final (won) against Marchin Patriots, but coming down to the last four overs we didn’t play good cricket and threw away the game,” Ramkissoon said.

He credited the knowledge and experience imparted on players from veterans Emrit and Simmons, who he believes, were integral in keeping the group inspired to hit their targets during matches.

“The team was always motivated to win. The leadership from Lendl Simmons was second to none. Rayad Emrit’s role was critical as he has the power to get players to perform at a higher level.”

Ramkissoon recognised stalwart contributions of all his players but highlighted the efforts of longstanding spinner Imran Khan, opening batsmen Kamil Pooran and Kjorn Ottley, along with Sameer Ali and Mikkel Govia, among others.

“At any, and different points of the season, all our players put up their hands and bought into the philosophy that we need to win these tournaments. I’ll take two out of three titles any time.”

The mantra was always to win.

“Even at our practice sessions, we were adamant that we needed to want to win and perform to win. I saw that in them this year and I can’t blame or fault them for anything. We had some below-par performances but when you look at the overall performance, it was excellent still.”

Looking ahead to the upcoming season, Ramkissoon is intent on retaining all his players, only if they want to be retained. He remains upbeat ahead of 2025 and confirmed that he may include a couple of local additions to the player set-up.

“All my players deserve to be retained. If I retain them, together with two or three additional players, I think we’ll be a force to be reckoned with in 2025. We learnt this year to never give up, especially how we started the league.”

“Always be positive, always have you goals set and work towards them. Once you fall, get up and keep moving.”