PORT OF SPAIN – The non-arrival of some of their luggage forced the Barbados Pride’s first training session at Queen’s Park Oval, in Port of Spain to be curtailed on Tuesday. However, manager Wendell Coppin said it was not a huge setback for his Nagico Super50 team who were prepared well before arriving in Trinidad.
The Pride were scheduled to train at the Oval from 1 pm but had to cut short that session after 11 pieces of their luggage did not arrive when the team touched down on Monday.
Dwayne Smith, Ashley Nurse, Sulieman Benn were among a handful of Pride players seen at the Oval nets yesterday and according to Coppin they rest of the team were still waiting for their luggage to arrive.
“We envisaged that there could have been problems either with the baggage or people not feeling well after travelling but our preparation has gone really well in Barbados. The fact that the baggage did not arrive is an inconvenience because the players don’t have any additional clothes. We don’t see it as a bigger concern. Yes it is an inconvenience but we will not lose anything because of it that we haven’t prepared for,” Coppin added.
Speaking about the upcoming campaign, Coppin said the Pride were eager to get started no matter who their opponents are.
“All the groups are tough. Remember Barbados did not qualify last year for the playoffs and if we want to win the tournament, we have to play the best teams. It so happened we have to play against defending champions Trinidad but the reason we came here is to play cricket and whoever we have to play, our aim is to play good enough cricket to win the tournament,” the manager said.
Barbados open the tournament at the UWI SPEC facility in St Augustine against the ICC Americas from 9 am tomorrow, while Trinidad and Toabgo Red Force face Jamaica Scorpions in their first match at the Oval from 1:30 pm on the same day.
Meanwhile defending champions Red Force had a full training session yesterday and newly appointed skipper Jason Mohammed expressed confidence that his team can do well in the tournament.
Mohammed said while he will not have some of the usual Red Force big guns at his disposal, he is still confident that his players will come together to mount a successful title defence.
Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo, Lendl Simmons, Ravi Rampaul and Shannon Gabriel are all missing from the line-up which includes two newcomers in pacer Philton Williams and off-spinner Jon Russ Jaggesar.
“As we all know, our batting in the four-day was not the best. But this is a different tournament and I think we play one-day cricket better, that is no secret, so I think the batting will come up better in this tournament,” said Mohammed.
“Hopefully our top six can deliver the goods and the latter can fire towards the end of the innings,” he added.
In the top six will be aggressive opening batsman Evin Lewis, wicket-keeper Steven Katwaroo, Narsingh Deonarine and Kyle Hope along with Mohammed, while former skipper Rayad Emrit and all-rounder Kevon Cooper will provide some firepower down the order.
