West Indies Cricket Fans

Top-order batsmen Jyd Goolie and Kamil Pooran, and Amir Jangoo, who recently debuted for the West Indies in One-Day International (ODI) and Test cricket, are among seven protected picks for TT ahead of the draft for Cricket West Indies' (CWI) new regional T20 tourney. The tournament, which is set to give exposure to upcoming talents in the region, will be played at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy (BLCA) in Tarouba. The tournament is tentatively scheduled for April 25-May 9, with the player draft scheduled for February 24. The TT team, which will be known as the TT Legions, will also have Crystian Thurton, 2024 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) winner Mikkel Govia and allrounders Navin Bidaisee and Joshua James as protected picks. The 24-year-old James, a former West Indies Under-19 player, debuted for the Red Force in last year's CG United Regional Super50 tournament and also has a handful of CPL matches under his belt. CWI's five other territorial boards are being represented in the tournament, with Barbados Pelicans, Guyana Caimans, Jamaica Titans, Leeward Islands Thunder and Windward Islands Infernos all set to take part. Each team will have 14 players, all of whom must be under 30 by the end of the tournament. Teams are allowed to select three players between 27-29, with TT utilising those picks to select the trio of Goolie, 27, Pooran, 28, and the 27-year-old wicket-keeper/batsman Jangoo who scored a century on ODI debut for the Windies against Bangladesh last December. Of the seven protected picks reserved to the various teams, one player must be a wrist-spinner. TT satisfied this criteria with the selection of 24-year-old leg-spinner Bidaisee. To qualify to participate in the tournament, prospective players must have fewer than ten T20 international caps and 40 List A T20s. Each team must draft a minimum of two overseas players. Speaking to Newsday on February 21, Red Force coach Rayad Emrit relayed the thought process behind the protected picks, and also explained picking the remaining players will be an especially tough task. TT have entered over 90 players into the player draft. "The other seven (players) will be very tricky because there are a lot of good players in the draft to choose from. It's a lot of players. We're definitely looking to get a couple of fast bowlers. Right now, we only have one fast bowler in the squad in Joshua James, so our main focus in the squad is going to be fast bowling and a couple of batsmen," Emrit said. He also said the team would love to land a left-arm spinner. With seamers Jayden Seales, 23, and Anderson Phillip, 28, set to honour English County Championship contracts which overlap with the T20 tournament, Emrit reckons TT will start at a disadvantage in that department. Red Force captain and West Indies Test vice-captain Joshua Da Silva, 26, is one of the players in the draft. Former West Indies Under-19 players such as Justin Jagessar, Mbeki Joseph, Leonardo Julien, Kirstan Kallicharan, Anderson Mahase, Shiva Sankar and opener Cephas Cooper, who notched his maiden First-Class ton for the Red Force in the West Indies Four-day Championships earlier this month, are also registered for the draft. Emrit believes the tournament is a step in the right direction as regional players aren't given even chance to showcase their abilities outside of the CPL. "There obviously isn't any real T20 tournament that we can get the next crop of T20 players from or people from outside could see our younger talent," he said. "It's a good initiative from CWI and CPL. I just thought our players tend to develop a little older. Probably they could have extended the age group a bit more to 25-30 because as a region we definitely develop later than most countries." Emrit said players will not be rewarded for mediocrity, and wants them to raise the bar higher as they seek to make their name in this tournament and eventually go on to the international scene.The post Goolie, Jangoo, Pooran among protected picks for regional T20 tourney appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.

Source: https://newsday.co.tt/2025/02/22/goolie ... 0-tourney/