Pollard, Bravo, Narine stay with T&T for Champions League

[Michael-j]

Pollard, Bravo, Narine stay with T&T for Champions League
By Roger Seepersad
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/sports/Pollard__Bravo__Narine_stay_with__T_T_for_Champions_League-163262926.html
Story Created: Jul 20, 2012 at 11:59 PM ECT
Story Updated: Jul 20, 2012 at 11:59 PM ECT


Indian Premier League (IPL) stars Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Sunil Narine will play for Trinidad and Tobago in the Champions League T20 competition.
Minister of Sport Anil Roberts yesterday confirmed that an agreement has been reached that will allow the players to line up for T&T in the tournament, which is set for South Africa in October. They are expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to that end today.
All three players have qualified to play for both T&T and their respective IPL franchises for the 2012 Champions League, but at yesterday's SPORTT (Sport Company of T&T) Youth Sport Camp at Marlin's Swimming Pool in Westmoorings, Roberts told reporters that the trio will be in the T&T squad.
Without Pollard and Bravo in last year's Champions League in India–the duo played for IPL's Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings respectively–T&T only just missed out on qualification for the semi-finals after losing their two opening matches by the narrowest of margins.
This year Sunil Narine qualified for the Champions League with Kolkata Knight Riders.
Like last year, T&T will have to play in a pre-tournament qualifying phase with the top two teams moving on to the main tournament. The team topped their qualifying group last year.
Of the agreement, with the players, Roberts said: "Negotiations...up to yesterday (Thursday) I met with the managers...we are hopefully to sign an MOU tomorrow (Saturday) and get down to the nitty-gritty of the details of the contracts, but all three players have said they want to play for Trinidad and Tobago. the Government of Trinidad and Tobago have said they will match their fees, so that they will not lose anything."
"We want the best team. Some of the Indian teams, the owners are obviously a bit upset because they would love to have Sunil Narine, Pollard and Bravo but unfortunately, I told them quite upfront that we are being professional, that we are not holding anything in secret. We are not going to wait until the last minute and then steal the players from under them," Roberts added.
He said he made T&T's position clear to the IPL franchises early on and said some of them were upset with the position.
"I spoke with Mr Venky of Kolkata Knight Riders and so on and explained that this is the position we have taken early. We have let them know because we professional. We appreciate what they have done for our boys but Trinidad and Tobago comes first and our players, we must have our entire team out there to represent Trinidad and Tobago because Sport Tourism is huge...
"We want to win the Champions League, not only for the benefit of Trinidad and Tobago but the pride and passion of winning a world championship," said Roberts.
"I also explained to them, because some of them are quite upset...I said, 'please for a moment, just picture Mahendra Singh Dhoni or Sachin Tendulkar or (Suresh) Raina deciding or contemplating to play for a club ahead of India. I don't think that would even be a choice. I don't think they would even be able to set foot in their land of their birth if ever they even consider disappointing their countrymen and their country by playing for club for money'," he explained.
"So I asked them to consider Trinidad and Tobago, even though we are smaller than them, to consider us in exactly the same way. We are a sovereign republic. We have spent a lot of time, money, effort and coaching on our players and we want the best for Red White and Black. It is nothing against them (the IPL franchises) but it is a positive that Trinidad and Tobago must have the best team," Roberts added.
"So while they may be upset, I tell them I am very sorry they are upset, but the (T&T) population wants our best players, the Government wants our best players. The players want to play for Trinidad and Tobago and they will play for Trinidad and Tobago," Roberts concluded.

[truetrini]

I hope de fellas eh get black listed for this after

[Michael-j]

I hope de fellas eh get black listed for this after

Well, well...look what's happening now 

T&T trio doubtful for IPL Champions League
Published:
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Andre E Baptiste
 
http://www.guardian.co.tt/sport/2012-07-24/tt-trio-doubtful-ipl-champions-league
 
Trinidad and Tobago’s trio of all-rounders Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, and spin bowler Sunil Narine, are unlikely to represent their country at the IPL Champions League in South Africa. It is understood that the owners of the respective clubs in the IPL, are very unhappy with efforts by T&T to have the players give up their franchises to represent their country. Bravo plays with two-time champion team Chennai Super Kings while Pollard plays with Mumbai Indians and Narine, with champions Kolkata Knight Riders.
 
The Guardian was told by a reliable source that the owners as well as the controllers of the IPL are threatening to ban T&T if the government forces the players to play for their countries. “These owners are not giving the players any choice. There is talk that the IPL franchises may not select any player from T&T  in the future if the trio fails to represent their franchises,” said the close source. “It would appear that this could end the chances of many youngsters playing in this league in the future and the franchise bosses are saying this was always a club event, and not a country event,. The only exception was the West Indies,” he added “The IPL Board is supporting the claims of the owners despite any clause in the contract,” he stated.
 
Indian Movie sensation, Shahrukh Khan, owns the Kolkata Knight Riders, while the man described as India’s richest man—Mukesh Ambani—owns Mumbai Indians. India Cements Limited owns the Chennai Super Kings.
Outgoing West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) chief executive officer,  Dr Ernest Hillarie, may have to get involved as the situation may also affect West Indies cricket.
If the players do not represent T&T, it will not be the first time, as in 2011 both Bravo and Pollard played for their respective franchises in the IPL Champions League in India.
The  Guardian understands that the players are saddened by this development, since they were looking forward to leading T&T to victory, after their historic second place finish in 2009.

****************************

I thought for the purpose of the Champions League, the T&T team is considered a club ??( which also happens to be a country).
If it were left up to me I would tell the IPL and the BCCI to go f@ck themselves. But I appreciate the bigger picture here ( players careers, potential income, etc) so all I can do is shake my head at the whole situation.

[lefty]

steups....knew this was going to happen at some point.....this setup is very unusual and each player are valuable assets to these clubs, they not going to lie down and take it jus so.

[D.H.W]

Stueps

[Big Magician]

the early bird catches the worm cacahole

[frico]

I wonder if the WICB could change the T/20 championships in the Caribbean to a Club formula instead of Islands against each other.The best clubs from each islands then play each other and obviously the club from TT will comprise our best T/20 players,that would obviously be the TT team.

[dwolfman]

International cricket is a funny sport. The "country" for those purposes is the West Indies and since international players come from the "club" level the clubs in the West Indies make up the island territories. Obviously we understand that the island territories are sovereign states, rather than actual clubs, but we would be remiss not to pay attention to the "cricket circumstance" that is present because of the existence of the West Indies.

The IPL is a club tournament, plain and simple. The IPL CL is also a club tournament. The IPL decided to invite the winner of the West Indian T20 competition as they represented the best "club" in the region. Roberts gone hyping up the situation mentioning Indian cricketers representing their country when all of them are available for their clubs. He should have left it as a club arrangement and tried to "buy out" their contractual obligations rather than publicly brow-beat the IPL clubs. If the clubs agree to let them play for us, great, if not then we use the opportunity to expose more cricketers. Cooper, Badree and Narine stepped up in the absence of Pollard and Bravo. Otherwise we negotiate for the right to have the player represent T&T first should their IPL team qualify for the CL. Again, if it works, great, if not at least there would be the understanding early on that they play for their IPL team first.

We need to stop operating like 3rd world country bush men if we want to be taken seriously internationally. With no economic power, it is our intelligence and diplomacy that will get us what we want, not insensitive and inflexible rants.

[Michael-j]

T&T set to lose top trio
Pollard, Bravo, Narine to play with IPL teams in Champions League
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/sports/T_T_set_to_lose_top_trio-165681646.html
Story Created: Aug 9, 2012 at 11:06 PM ECT
Story Updated: Aug 9, 2012 at 11:06 PM ECT

The Trinidad and Tobago trio of Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Sunil Narine will most likely line up with their respective Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises for the Champions League Twenty20 in October.
While the three players will be in T&T's 20-man provisional squad, they are not certain to be among the final 15.
This was confirmed by a member of the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB) yesterday who said, to his knowledge, the players had already signed contracts to play for their IPL franchises in the tournament--Pollard with defending champions Mumbai Indians, Bravo with Chennai Super Kings and Narine with Kolkata Knight Riders.
The TTCB is yet to announce the provisional 20-man squad for the Champions League, which needs to be submitted to the Champions League organisers today.
Last year, Trinidad and Tobago missed out on the services of Bravo and Pollard for the Champions League. However, this year, Minister of Sport Anil Roberts said he would negotiate to have the T&T players represent the national team in the 2012 competition.
Last month Roberts said he and the players were close to an agreement but it now seems as though the players will be representing their IPL teams in the tournament.
Yesterday, a 15-man T&T squad left for Florida where they will play two T20 matches against Jamaica today and tomorrow as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the two Caribbean countries.

T&T squad vs Jamaica: Denesh Ramdin (captain), Lendl Simmons, Justin Guillen, William Perkins, Daren Ganga, Sherwin Ganga, Jason Mohammed, Yannick Ottley, Rayad Emrit, Navin Stewart, Dave Mohammed, Kharry Pierre, Mervyn Dillon, Aneil Kanhai, Evin Lewis.
David Williams (coach), Omar Khan (manager), Clinton Jeremiah (trainer), Dinesh Mahabir (analyst).

[D.H.W]

Stueps. Between qualifying just to get into the group and losing players, my excitement for this tournament is nil.

[frico]

We already have Pollard,Bravo,Narine and Cooper,who knows we may even have Simmons and Badree next.

[pardners]

We already have Pollard,Bravo,Narine and Cooper,who knows we may even have Simmons and Badree next.

Who knows...in the next two years when all the T&T players playing for their IPL teams, we will have to bring back Lara and Ganga to play for T&T.

[D.H.W]

Something needs to be done, because at this rate we will have no team soon. How does this benefit us?

[dwolfman]

Easy way to fix that. Get our players to stop doing well.

[Michael-j]

Ganga left out of CLT20 squad
By KEVIN SUNICH Thursday, September 13 2012
http://www.newsday.co.tt/sport/0,166185.html

FORMER Trinidad and Tobago captain Darren Ganga will not be representing The Red Force at the 2012 edition of the Champions League T20 tournament set for South Africa next month.

The Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) which had to submit the names of the 15-member squad over the weekend has not released the names thus far. However, a source close to the cricket board indicated that the man touted as the most successful TT skipper was not among the 15 selected.

Ganga who was in the initial squad had been training with the others for just over two months. He indicated that he was aiming to make the cut a couple of days before the start of the “Twenty 20 for 50” quadrangular Independence celebrations tournament last month at the Queen’s Park Oval.

“I would love to get another opportunity to represent my country at this level. This is another big occasion and I am pressing to make the final 15. Any player would love playing in the Champions League, it is a step above the regional level and a small step just below international cricket so it is not a bad place to be,” said Ganga.

He led an All-star XI in the tournament which also included a Brian Lara All Star XI, Jamaica and TT. His team, however, finished fourth and it appears that he did not do enough to catch the eyes of the selectors.

Ganga led the twin island to the final of the inaugural tournament in 2009 where they lost to New South Wales. He also led the team to the tournament last year, however, they were without two of their stars in Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard and they did not reach the knock out stage.

The former West Indies opener who has served TT cricket for over ten years, helping the country to numerous regional titles, now has his eyes set on helping from the grass roots level.

Newsday learnt that the eight TT players who are currently with the West Indies team in preparation for the coming T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka are also in the team- they are Pollard, Bravo (Dwayne), mystery spinner Sunil Narine, Samuel Badree, lendl Simmons, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Darren Bravo. 

[D.H.W]

Huh?

[Michael-j]

Huh?

My sentiments exactly.

[NYtriniwhiteboy..]

Players choose IPL teams in Champions League
ESPNcricinfo staff
September 14, 2012
Comments: 60 | Login via  | Text size: A | A

Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard will be opponents...again © AFP
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Players/Officials: Dwayne Bravo | Sunil Narine | Kieron Pollard
Series/Tournaments: Champions League T20
Teams: Australia | Chennai Super Kings | Delhi Daredevils | England | Hampshire | India | Kolkata Knight Riders | Mumbai Indians | New Zealand | Pakistan | South Africa | Sri Lanka | West Indies | Yorkshire
All nine players who were nominated for two teams in next month's Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa have opted to represent their respective IPL teams over their domestic sides. This includes the Trinidad and Tobago players Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine, who will now turn out for Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders. The squads of all 14 teams were released today.

The other players who have confirmed their participation for their IPL teams include Faf du Plessis, Albie Morkel and Michael Hussey (Super Kings), Mitchell Johnson (Mumbai), Brett Lee (Knight Riders) and Morne Morkel (Delhi Daredevils).

According to the tournament rules, the IPL franchises which have acquired the nine players will have to pay US$150,000 as compensation to the 'home' teams of the players. The Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board may gain financially, but will be considerably weakened by the loss of three key players, all of whom are integral to West Indies' limited-overs setup.

Trinidad is among the six teams that will play a qualifying round, starting October 9. The other teams in the mix are Yorkshire, Uva Next, Auckland, Sialkot Stallions and Hampshire. The top two teams in the qualifying round will join the remaining eight sides for the Group Stage, starting October 13. The final will be played on October 28, in Johannesburg.

Auckland Aces: Gareth Hopkins (capt), Andre Adams, Michael Bates, Brad Cachopa, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Ronnie Hira, Anaru Kitchen, Mitchell McClenaghan, Azhar Mahmood, Bruce Martin, Chris Martin, Kyle Mills, Colin Munro, Lou Vincent

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (capt), R Ashwin, S Badrinath, Doug Bollinger, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Ben Hilfenhaus, Michael Hussey, Ravindra Jadeja, Albie Morkel, Suresh Raina, Wriddhiman Saha, S Anirudha, M Vijay, V Yo Mahesh

Delhi Daredevils: Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Virender Sehwag, Varun Aaron, Ajit Agarkar, Unmukt Chand, Morne Morkel, Pawan Negi, Naman Ojha, Irfan Pathan, Kevin Pietersen, Andre Russell, Venugopal Rao, Ross Taylor, David Warner, Umesh Yadav

Hampshire: James Adams, Shahid Afridi, Kabir Ali, Michael Bates, Daniel Briggs, Michael Carberry, Liam Dawson, Sean Ervine, David Griffiths, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Hamza Riazuddin, Bilal Shafayat, Glenn Maxwell, James Vince, Christopher Wood

Highveld Lions: Temba Bavuma, Gulam Bodi, Zander de Bryun, Quinton de Kock, Neil McKenzie, Pumelela Matshikwe, Chris Morris, Dirk Nannes, Ethan O'Reilly, Alviro Petersen. Aaron Phangiso, Dwaine Pretorius, Sohail Tanvir, Jean Symes, Thami Tsolekile

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (capt), Iqbal Abdullah, Shakib Al Hasan, L Balaji, Rajat Bhatia, Manvinder Bisla, Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Brendon McCullum, Sunil Narine, Yusuf Pathan, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Shami Ahmed, Ryan ten Doeschate, Manoj Tiwary

No break for some Australians
Australia's captain Michael Clarke had stated that the Twenty20 Champions League would be an equal impediment for both his side and South Africa's ahead of their Test series down under in November. However the announcement of the squads for the club competition has shown that in this case, one side is slightly more equal than the other.
Seven Australian Test players have been chosen for T20 duty in South Africa: Ben Hilfenhaus and Michael Hussey (Chennai Super Kings), David Warner (Delhi Daredevils), and Pat Cummins, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Starc and Shane Watson (Sydney Sixers). The five South African Test players to be involved will be Morne Morkel (DD), Alviro Petersen (Highveld Lions), Jacques Kallis (KKR), AB de Villiers and Jacques Rudolph (Titans).
Two likely Australian Test players, Ed Cowan and James Pattinson, hold T20 contracts but were not chosen for their respective sides. Players participating in the final of the Champions League on October 28 will have little more than three days to change gears before South Africa's tour match against Australia A at the SCG from November 2. The first Test begins in Brisbane on November 9.
Mumbai Indians: Harbhajan Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Mitchell Johnson, Dinesh Karthik, Dhawal Kulkarni, Richard Levi, Lasith Malinga, Pragyan Ojha, Munaf Patel, Thisara Perera, Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu, Rohit Sharma, Dwayne Smith, Suryakumar Yadav
Perth Scorchers: Tom Beaton, Michael Beer, Paul Collinwood, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Ryan Duffield, Ben Edmondson, Herschelle Gibbs, Brad Hogg, Simon Katich, Mitchell Marsh, Joe Mennie, Shaun Marsh, Marcus North, Nathan Rimmington, Luke Ronchi

Sialkot Stallions: Shoaib Malik (capt), Qaiser Abbas, Sarfraz Ahmed, Shakeel Ansar, Mohammad Ayub, Umaid Asif, Bilawal Bhatti, Raza Hasan, Ali Khan, Imran Nazir, Faisal Naveed, Naved-ul-Hasan, Abdur Rehman, Haris Sohail, Shahid Yusuf

Sydney Sixers: Brad Haddin, Shane Watson, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Michael Lumb, Nathan McCullum, Nic Maddinson, Ian Moran, Phil Nevill, Stephen O'Keefe, Ben Rohrer, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Dominic Thornley

Titans: Martin van Jaarsveld (capt), Farhaan Behardien, Henry Davids, Marchant de Lange, AB de Villiers, Paul Harris, Heino Kuhn, Eden Links, Ethy Mbhalati, Mangaliso Mosehle, Rowan Richards, Jacques Rudolph, Roelof van der Merwe, Alfonso Thomas, David Wiese

Trinidad and Tobago: Denesh Ramdin (capt), Samuel Badree, Adrian Barath, Darren Bravo, Kevon Cooper, Rayad Emrit, Shannon Gabriel, Sherwin Ganga, Jason Mohammad, Evin Lewis, Yannick Ottley, William Perkins, Ravi Rampaul, Lendl Simmons, Navin Stewart

Uva Next: Thilina Kandamby (capt), Fawad Alam, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dilhara Fernando, Umar Gul, Charith Jayampathi, Chintaka Jayasinghe, Andrew McDonald, Dilshan Munaweera, Jacob Oram, Seekkuge Prasanna, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Sameera Zoysa, Sachithra Senanayake, Upul Tharanga

Yorkshire: Joe Root, Moin Ashraf, Jonny Bairstow, Gary Ballance, Andrew Gale, Oliver Hannon-Dalby, Dan Hodgson, Phil Jaques, Adam Lyth, David Miller, Steve Patterson, Azeem Rafiq, Adil Rashid, Ryan Sidebottom, Iain Wardlaw

[fishs]

 Right that's the end of that, money first everything after. Difficult choice for the players to make but nobody going to mind them after they stop playing cricket.

  So let's move on to the Windies T20 tournament, WICB should now change the rules for our T20 tournament so that foreigners can play and or at the very least the WI players can play for any team they want. So for instance if ah man cyar make the Jamaican team but he could make a Bajan team, then he should be allowed to.

My reasoning is if these franchises could take our best, we should not use them in our tournament but let other fellas get a chance. That is if the ultimate goal is to win the champions league, as it isTTdoh stand a ghost of a chance and that is why they have to qualify.

But imagine if we could use say Benn instead of Narine
Narsingh Deonarine instead of Bravo
Deandra DOttin instead of Pollard.

We woulda have a chance.