Cricket Newfoundland and Labrador has named a strong team to compete at the Atlantic T20 tournament being held this weekend in Montreal, Quebec. Fourteen players have been selected, led by Captain Kathir Chenthilnathan. They will play a round-robin against hosts Québec, PEI, New Brunswick, and last year’s champions, Nova Scotia.
This is the team’s fourth Atlantic T20 tournament following the establishment of Cricket Newfoundland and Labrador in 2010. Last year they finished second, beating Quebec, PEI and New Brunswick. Coach (and Cricket NL President) Sentill Selvamani believes that this is the best squad sent to the tournament in four years. “We’ve a good mixture of youth and experience, with best performers from last year boosted by new recruits“.
Financial support from national body Cricket Canada and sponsors Tata Steel/ New Millennium Iron has reduced barriers that players faced in participating.
The early date for the tournament has meant the team’s match practice has been severely limited as access to grass fields is not possible until June. Without a permanent ground and proper practice facilities, the team has been using an outdoor basketball court in a public park to prepare. Selvamani is pleased with the team’s commitment and despite the lack of match practice is optimistic. “We have a committed squad, and the team has worked very hard to prepare, in spite of the inclement weather. The team is well balanced with strong batting and bowling, but the biggest area of improvement is in the fielding”.
Captain Kathir Chenthilnathan will bring his experience of playing in the National Cricket League for the Eastern Fury last year, and will stabilize the batting as well as leading the spin bowling.
Kathir is hoping to win the tournament but knows that this will be a tough task. “Quebec took us lightly last year, but this time we’ll be facing their full strength squad, who have had a month of match practice under their belts, and to win the tournament we’ll need to beat them and also defeat last year’s champions Nova Scotia who have boosted their team with Canadian National and High Performance players”.
The team has a tough schedule, playing back to back matches against New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on Saturday, and Quebec and PEI on Sunday.
Full team:
Kathir Chenthilnathan (Captain), Sentill Selvamani (Coach), Rakesh Negi, Kavish Srivastava, Nick Baxter, Saad Shaifan Ahmed, Saad Jahangir, Abbas Haider, Kranthi Kumar, Kaivallya Kulkarni, Alpesh Patel, Nithin Jose, Hummam Bin Saif, Suhail Aziz Parrey
Cricket Newfoundland and Labrador is grateful to its sponsors, Tata Steel and New Millennium Iron for its support.
