By KERN RAMLOCHAN Wednesday, March 26 2008

THE TRINIDAD and Tobago players are scheduled to commence their final preparations today as they get ready for their key Carib Beer Series regional cricket match against Barbados at Guaracara Park, Pointe-a-Pierre starting on Friday.

Currently Trinidad and Tobago are second on the standings on 43 points with Barbados third on 42 points. Jamaica have already won the Carib Beer Series and the second place team will go on to contest the Carib Beer Challenge Final.

Trinidad and Tobago will start their training at 9 am at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port-of-Spain before heading to the Paria Suites in La Romain where they will be staying.

Manager of the Trinidad and Tobago team, Colin Borde explained yesterday that the West Indies trio of Amit Jaggernauth, Dwayne Bravo and Denesh Ramdin who are on duty with the West Indies team in Guyana will return home as soon as possible.

He said they are eager to play against Barbados.

Sri Lanka will also be playing a tour match at Shaw Park, Tobago starting on Saturday and Borde assured that the national team had first priority on player selection and would not be hampered by the match.

“At the camp we will be going over team plans and will be re- iterating our objectives. Also there will be player assessments of the Barbados team before the captain and the coach make their final inputs,” said Borde.

Within recent time Trinidad and Tobago dominated Barbados when the two teams met, with the national team defeating the Bajans at the quarter-finals of the Stanford Twenty20 tournament.

“We have done well against Barbados in the recent past and I hope we continue to do well against them. Hopefully the psychological factor will play a part but we need to go out their and do things well and execute the basic stuff,” said Borde.

The TT manager explained that if the bowlers bowl in the right areas and the team exhibits more patience we should be successful if the squad can accomplish these goals.

Guaracara Park has been named as the new venue for the match which was previously scheduled to be played at the Queen’s Park Oval.

“The game was originally scheduled to be played at Guaracara Park on the fixtures and was moved to the Queen’s Park Oval and is now back at Guaracara Park.

“But there are many reasons for the game being moved with the huge crowds and the players having done well against Barbados there despite the guys being confident at both venues. I really hope the crowd comes out in red and really supports the team and be very vocal,” said Borde.

He added that the team will be aiming to play good cricket and get the points necessary to qualify to play for the Carib Shield Final.