Speaking at the East Zone awards ceremony yesterday at the El Dorado West Secondary school, Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board president Deryck Murray revealed that he approached the West Indies Cricket Board to look at making national skipper Daren Ganga captain of the regional team.
Murray's comments came on the heels of T&T's success at the Airtel Champions League Twenty/20 tournament in India where Ganga's captaincy was hailed as a key element in the team's unbeaten run to the final where they eventually lost to Australian outfit New South Wales Blues by 41 runs.
In addition to Ganga leading to the regional squad, Murray also proposed that Dwayne Bravo be the regional team's vice-captain, Omar Khan be reinstated as manager of the senior team and David Williams be the coach.
However, the former West Indies wicketkeeper insisted that his statements were not promoting insularity.
"That is a careful assessment of West Indies cricket and what we need to move forward," Murray added. "We need astute leadership which I believe Ganga can give. We need to have passion, pride and motivation on the field which I believe Dwayne Bravo brings with him.
"We also need to build a strong team and I believe that will come from Omar and David and I say again this is not insularity, it is a firmly held belief that T&T needs to be the one to take the lead."
Khan has been serving as manager of the senior regional squad but was recently placed in charge of the Under-19 team who are currently preparing for the ICC Youth World Cup next year, while Williams has been serving as assistant coach for the senior team.
West Indies head coach John Dyson was recently relieved of his post for reportedly failing to sign his coaching contract and Williams has since been elevated to stand-in head coach. He has so far overseen the make-shift West Indies team led by Floyd Reifer, at the recent ICC Champions Trophy series in South Africa.
No replacement for Dyson has been named and Murray believes Williams is the best man for the job, especially after helping T&T rise to be one of the top contenders in the regional tournaments over the last five years.
He continued: "We need to use T&T's success as a catalyst to revitalise West Indies cricket. In India, T&T opened the eyes of everyone who was watching, millions across the world."
He noted that West Indies cricket has been down in the doldrums for so long but it gives everyone hope "to see one unit of the West Indies produce a team which proved to be the second best Twenty/20 team in the world and who won the hearts and minds of everyone through unity, passion and (the) discipline they displayed."
Murray added: "So we in Trinidad and Tobago could look at that as our contribution and I have also suggested to the West Indies Cricket Board to host a Twenty/20 tournament and I believe that Trinidad and Tobago should host it later in December and I am quite sure with T&T's recent success, there will be no trouble in getting a sponsor for the tournament."
The TTCB boss concluded that the national squad cannot afford to rest on their laurels. "To lead West Indies cricket back to the top of the international cricket tree, the T&T team must build on its success and continue to work for the betterment of West Indies cricket."
Meanwhile Ganga's squad return home tonight from India. However, the final squad for the President's Cup regional 50-over series scheduled to start on Wednesday in Guyana is yet to be announced. The team are due to leave for Guyana at 5am tomorrow morning.
T&T, the defending champions, will face Jamaica in their opening Group A match. The Combined Campuses and Colleges are the other team in the group.
Reviewed by Priya Kanagaratnam
on
9:26 AM
Rating: 5
