Naz Ya­coob

?The ad­min­is­tra­tive man­ag­er of the T&T Crick­et Board, Ramb­hai Pa­tel, has called on the pub­lic of T&T to wear red cloth­ing to­day. Ac­cord­ing to Pa­tel, this is in sup­port of the na­tion­al team in the fi­nal against New South Wales Blues in the Air­Tel Cham­pi­ons League T20 at the Ra­jiv Gand­hi Sta­di­um in Hy­der­abad. The lo­cal team un­der the as­tute cap­tain­cy of Daren Gan­ga reached cen­tre stage when they de­feat­ed the Cape Co­bras by sev­en wick­ets at the same venue, yes­ter­day. The T&T team have gone un­beat­en in their five match­es and have been guar­an­teed US$1.3m by the or­gan­is­ers for reach­ing the fi­nal.

If T&T are suc­cess­ful in the fi­nal, the team will pock­et a hand­some US$2.5m. There will be a pre-game show at 10 am on CNC3, with Sports Di­rec­tor Roger Sant, and a post-match dis­cus­sion at 1.30 pm. Mean­while, con­grat­u­la­to­ry mes­sages keep pour­ing in for the team for their awe­some vic­to­ry yes­ter­day and for reach­ing the fi­nal to­day. Op­po­si­tion Leader Bas­deo Pan­day said that this team will go down in his­to­ry as the Caribbean squad that per­se­vered and be­gan their jour­ney in the com­pe­ti­tion with­out spon­sor­ship. "I want to send my con­grat­u­la­tions to cap­tain Daren Gan­ga and his men for the skill and tal­ent demon­strat­ed to the world as they showed vigour and team spir­it in each match," Pan­day said.

He added that the Op­po­si­tion and its mem­bers recog­nise and cel­e­brate this re­mark­able achieve­ment and it is def­i­nite­ly a big boost for T&T and crick­et as a whole. Pan­day said that it is his wish that more young men and women get in­volved in the sport. "Let us now em­bark on a strate­gic plan and set tar­gets for the fu­ture de­vel­op­ment of crick­et. This is a mag­nif­i­cent win (yes­ter­day's semi­fi­nal). It was both an en­ter­tain­ing and out­stand­ing per­for­mance. The na­tion is very proud of you. Good luck to­mor­row (to­day)."

Al­so send­ing con­grat­u­la­tions to the team was the Min­istry of Sport and Youth Af­fairs (MSYA) on be­half of the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of T&T. "The part­ner­ship of cap­tain Daren Gan­ga and all rounder Dwayne Bra­vo sealed the vic­to­ry for T&T and earned us a place in the fi­nals.

In­deed the team has demon­strat­ed its prowess on the field of play, rep­re­sent­ing the Red, White and Black with a lev­el of ex­cel­lence. This is a tes­ta­ment of the de­vel­op­men­tal work un­der­tak­en by the T&T Crick­et Board and fa­cil­i­tat­ed by gov­ern­ment sub­ven­tions," the Min­istry of Sport point­ed out. The Sport Min­istry is al­so call­ing on the en­tire pop­u­la­tion to heed the call to wear red to­day as a show of sup­port for the team as they play the fi­nal match of the tour­na­ment. The West In­dies Play­ers' As­so­ci­a­tion head­ed by for­mer T&T and West In­dies leg-spin­ner Di­nanath Ram­nar­ine have al­so sent a con­grat­u­la­to­ry let­ter to the T&T crick­et team on their suc­cess in reach­ing the fi­nal. "The high qual­i­ty and con­sis­ten­cy of the team's in­cred­i­ble per­for­mance have brought im­mea­sur­able joy, re­spect, mo­ti­va­tion and recog­ni­tion to the re­gion and its crick­eters," Ram­nar­ine said.

Al­so adding his bit was Fi­fa's vice-pres­i­dent, Austin 'Jack' Warn­er, who is cur­rent­ly on busi­ness in Nige­ria. "My Fi­fa col­leagues who watched the live broad­cast of the match here in Nige­ria found it to be one of the most en­ter­tain­ing sport­ing events ever. Un­der the cap­tain­cy of Daren Gan­ga, the team once again dis­played con­fi­dence, or­gan­i­sa­tion and skill and de­liv­ered yet an­oth­er ster­ling vic­to­ry," Warn­er said. He re­mind­ed the team that the coun­try is proud of their ac­com­plish­ments thus far in this tour­na­ment and they have brought ho­n­our to the tiny twin-is­land na­tion and our Caribbean sib­lings at a time when re­gion­al crick­et is search­ing for di­rec­tion and hope.