West Indies opener Kraigg Brathwaite bats during play on day two of the fi rst cricket test between the West Indies
and New Zealand in Hamilton, New Zealand, Friday, Dec. 4, 2020. Andrew Cornaga/Photosport via Associated Press
By Nelson A. King
Former Trinidad and Tobago Soca
Warriors captain, Dwight Yorke
believes Trinidad and Tobago football
(soccer) needs to cut its losses
and start over, according to Trinidad
and Tobago Newsday.
The publication said on Jan. 2
that the 2006 World Cup midfielder
thinks T&T needs to go back to the
drawing board and rebuild its identity
as one of the most feared footballing
nations in the Caribbean before
it even attempts to oppose higherranked
territories.
Yorke described the culmination
of the T&T Football Association’s
(TTFA) administrative, financial
and legal blunders over the past 10
months as “dark”, “disappointing”
and a lingering threat to this current
crop of players, as well as the future
generation, Newsday reported.
Caribbean L 38 ife, JANUARY 8-14, 2021
It said that, in a recent online
interview with the TTFA media officer
Shaun Fuentes, the 49-year-old
ex-Manchester United star called for
a rejuvenated approach to the sport’s
local affairs as the nation heads into
its 2022 Concacaf World Cup qualifying
campaign in March.
“I feel that T&T needs to look at
themselves and try to regain some
kind of recognition and identity into
world football again,” Newsday quoted
Yorke as saying.
“If I were in that (TTFA) position,
I would start to play the Caribbean
teams again and engage with them a
little more to try to reestablish who
the number one regional team is,”
he added.
“We need (to) return that confident
and sense of belief back to the
team,” Yorke continued. “T&T was
once a fear factor in the region; but,
right now, I don’t think any Caribbean
team fears us on the pitch.”
In March 2020, Newsday said FIFA
removed the TTFA executive, headed
by then president William Wallace,
and implemented a normalization
committee, chaired by Robert Hadad,
“because of the mounting debts by
the local governing body.”
Newsday also said that FIFA suspended
T&T from international football
in September “after Wallace
and his executive challenged their
removal in the local High Court,
instead of the Court of Arbitration
for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland.”
FIFA lifted the suspension in
November after Wallace withdrew all
legal claims against the governing
body, Newsday said.
It said the normalization committee
remains in total control of all
local football operations.
ICC Teams-ofthe
Decade
Continued from Page 37
Women’s ODI Team-of-the-Decade,
along with off-spinner and former
vice-captain Anisa Mohammed.
However, no West Indies player
was included in the Test Team-ofthe
Decade.
Meanwhile, the ICC Cricketer-ofthe
Decade award-aptly named after
former West Indies captain and Barbados
National Hero, Sir Garfield
Sobers was taken by Indian batting
star and Captain Virat Kholi.
West Indies’ Stafanie Taylor in action
against Pakistan during the
Women’s Cricket World Cup in
Leicester, Britain, July 11, 2017. Action
Images via Reuters / Jason Cairnduff, fi le
It seems as if they just go out there,
hoping that New Zealand will just
fall apart and we can win the game.
It doesn’t work so,” he said in a recent
radio interview.
Sir Curtly said that while the bowlers
played their part, the fielding left
a lot to be desired, especially in the
second Test when Henry Nicholls
was dropped five times on his way to
a career-best 174.
“In all sports if you keep using
several players and they keep underperforming
or they keep failing then
you leave the selectors no choice but
to try other players,” he stressed.
“I think we have to look at our
whole cricket and decide where we go
from there. We have to make some
changes because we can’t expect to
play the same players over and get a
different result,” he lamented.
myer and Nicholas Pooran who have
also opted out of the tour, while CWI
said left-arm spinner Fabien Allen and
Test wicketkeeper, Shane Dowrich were
“unavailable due to personal reasons.”
In Holder’s absence, experienced
Kraigg Brathwaite will now lead the
Test side in the two-match series,
while Trinidadian Jason Mohammed
will take charge of the One-Day International
for the three-match rubber.
Mohammed last played for the West
Indies in 2 ½ years.
Despite the high profile exodus of
players for the tour, chief selector
Roger Harper told an online media
conference that he believed conditions
remained safe for players.
CWI had given the green light for
the tour following an assessment tour
of Bangladesh in November by a team,
which included Dr. Akshai Mansingh
and security officials to see what the
risk would be and make recommendations
to ensure the safety of the
players.
On Dr. Mansingh’s recommendation,
CWI announced last month it
had agreed to the tour- the third for
the West Indies amid the global pandemic.
The squad, which includes several
uncapped players, is due to arrive in
Bangladesh on Jan. 10.
Continued from Page 37
Continued from Page 37
WINDIES FIELDS DEPLETED SQUAD
No passion
Yorke wants TT football to regain regional supremacy