PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – Trinidad and Tobago left here Wednesday to do battle in the Etihad Summer Festival in Canada, a series that will see them beef up their preparation for the Champions League Twenty20. T&T will clash with International Cricket Council’s affiliate teams Canada, Afghanistan and United States in the tournament running from August 11 to 14.
They were expected to face Afghanistan in their opening game yesterday.
“This series comes at a time when we are preparing for the Champions League qualifiers and we are happy to get the opportunity to tour at this point in time,” T&T team manager Omar Khan said.
“It will be good to work on team spirit while the team is on tour and we not only intend to do a lot of on-field work but also mental work as well. We want the players to start getting into the targets mood and by this I mean getting into groove and coming up with set targets, as we build to the Champions League.”
Khan said T&T would use the tournament to hone their strategy of building competitive totals.
“We have been looking at the trends in T20 cricket and of late if you look at the English T20 tournament that is currently being played, you will notice that the average score is around 175,” he pointed out.
“So we have come up with a plan as to what score we want by which over and the guys will have the chance to go out there and practise this.”
T&T qualified for the Champions League by winning this year’s Caribbean T20.
SQUAD – Daren Ganga (captain),Rayad Emrit, Samuel Badree, William Perkins, Denesh Ramdin, Sherwin Ganga, Adrian Barath, Jason Mohammed, Dave Mohammed, Justin Guillen, Imran Khan, Richard Kelly. Navin Stewart, Aneil Kanhai.