Ganga ... Trinidad and Tobago ready to take home the second Stanford Twenty20 tournament and the US$1 million prize money.- FileCOOLIDGE, Antigua (CMC):
With last year's shocking final-over defeat long behind them, Trinidad & Tobago's captain Daren Ganga said his team was ready to take home the second Stanford Twenty20 tournament and the US$1 million prize money.
"Coming to this tournament, believing that we can win is one of our main assets," Ganga, the most experienced player in the Trinidad & Tobago team, said. "As players, we believe we are good enough to compete, good enough to win this tournament and that is the reason why we are participating here."
Prepared this time
In the 2006 final, Trinidad and Tobago were on course to win, but Narsingh Deonarine's six off the fifth ball of the final over, took the US$1 million prize to Guyana.
Ganga said they had been also confident of winning in 2006, but "fell down in certain areas".
He acknowledged that while the inaugural tournament had been a new experience for everyone, teams would be more prepared this time around.
"Now all the teams are going to be more experienced, with regards to this version of the game," said Ganga, who has played 35 one-day internationals for the West Indies.
"A lot of teams would have been in preparation months before this tournament, so it's not going to be easy. I am sure the competitiveness is going to be a lot higher."
Trinidad and Tobago open their quest for title honours today against Stanford Twenty20 St. Lucia Pro Team, who dispatched Cayman Islands in the opening match last weekend.
Get tactical
Despite several players - Ganga, Simmons, Kieron Pollard, David Mohammed and Mervyn Dillion - with West Indies one-day experience in the Trinidad and Tobago squad, the captain said they would not take anything for granted.
"We are not going to under-estimate anybody, because in this version of the game [last year], one over, one ball can change a game as we saw Deonarine winning the game with the second to last ball of the match, so its something that we understand," Ganga said.
"We are going to try and make certain we get a little more tactical towards the individual opposition É a lot of people expect us to do well and we are going to fulfill that expectation."
