Gally calls for Darin Lewis.
By: Ian Prescott (Express).
Everald "Gally" Cummings, the former Trinidad and Tobago national football coach and incumbent coach at professional club North East Stars, is puzzled by the omission of Darin Lewis, the WASA striker, from the inexperienced squad which will represent this country at the Digicel Caribbean Cup which to be held here from tomorrow to January 23.
"With the Jabloteh players out, I thought that a fairly experienced player like Darin Lewis would have been included in the squad. He destroyed us (North East Stars) in the FA Trophy Final. He was the one doing everything. He hit that nice volley in the penalty area which almost sunk us. I cannot believe that they did not have someone at the warm-up game last week when Haiti played WASA. I saw a lil' clip of the match and he (Lewis) gave the Haitians a difficult time. I would have though that players like him and Jemmott (Kerwyn) would have been a certainty."
Cummings, who confesses to not having seen many local matches because of his commitments with North East Stars, says he has concerns about the level of performance Trinidad and Tobago will put out with relatively unknown players, many of whom are having their first senior national caps. Taking in Haiti's 2-0 victory in a the Digicel Caribbean Cup qualifier against Bermuda at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva, on Sunday, Cummings said: "My worry is that a locally-based national team has not been in training. And we are going to send these guys out there and expect them to play well together. These guys have not played together and it will be interesting to see what they produce."
Cummings also thought that the loss of 12 San Juan Jabloteh players from selection had significantly weakened the Trinidad and Tobago national team. While trying his best to stay clear of the matter, it was obvious that Cummings was not in agreement with Englishman Terry Fenwick's decision to keep his Jabloteh players out of the national team and have them prepare for a Caribbean Club Championships semifinal on January 26 instead.
"The loss of the Jabloteh players is a big blow to Trinidad and Tobago because they were the back-up. They have some of the are best locally-based players, and with none of the professionals coming back from England, they were the players expected to be in the team. You know how important having World Cup players such as Cyd Gray and Aurtis Whitley would have been for the confidence of this team. With them gone we have to depend on third string...well let's say less-experienced players, to fill the national team. I never heard about some of them."
While Cummings was speaking, Dutch coach Wim Rijsbergen was putting the young T&T players through their final paces on the training ground at the far side of the Ato Boldon Stadium. Assistant national coach Anton Corneal was also in the stands and said he was impressed by the ball movement and skill of the Haitian national team. Cummings was not thrilled with either Haiti or Bermuda, remembering his day when Haitian nationals teams regularly gave Trinidad and Tobago plenty trouble.
Meanwhile, on Monday Jabloteh manager, Azaad Khan, said the club had not altered their position that because the Digicel Caribbean Cup did not fall on an officials match date on FIFA'S international match calendar, the local club had every right to do like the English clubs and hold onto their players. Khan said Jabloteh had written the governing Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation confirming their position to withhold their players on this occasion, since the club championship was important to Jabloteh's ambitions, and would be played just three days after the Caribbean Cup final. Khan said also the Jabloteh executive were to have held a meeting Monday night, but were not expected to alter their position.
