By KERN RAMLOCHAN Monday, May 12 2008

QUEEN’S Park Cricket Club captain, Justin Guillen believes his team has a good chance of breaking Clico Preysal’s stronghold on the Carib Shield Twenty20 Trophy.

Preysal have won the trophy for the last two years and will be playing a youthful Parkites team at Guaracara Park, Pointe-a- Pierre on Friday.

“We have a fairly good chance of winning once we stick to our game plan,” said Guillen.

Both teams were ousted from the WIPA Twenty20 Club Champions League at the quarter-final stage of the tournament and will be looking to make amends for their costly loss.

However, the Parkites will have to beat Clico Preysal without three of their key players. Runako Morton, Kieron Pollard and Fidel Edwards will be engaged in the West Indies training camp in Antigua from May 12-16 as they prepare for the Digicel Homes Series against Australia.

“We will be missing Kieron Pollard, Runako Morton and Fidel Edwards and therefore we will be relying on our younger players to get the job done for us against Preysal,” said Guillen.

He noted that despite the loss of three key players there were other players who would take up the mantle.

“We would be looking to guys such as all-rounder Kevon Cooper, Sunil Narine, Darren Deonarine and Darren Bravo to get the job done for us,” said Guillen.

He added that the squad should be boosted by the return of Barbadian spinner, Ryan Austin who will prove invaluable to the bowling attack.

“Ryan was injured earlier in the week and he missed some games in the WIPA Twenty20 Champions League tournament. However, He should be back in the team for the Carib final,” said Guillen.

The Queen’s Park skipper was positive about the impact of the WIPA Twenty20 Club Champions League tournament on his squad despite being knocked out in the quarter-finals to PowerGen.

“The matches down at Guaracara Park gave us good match practice under match conditions. The players were able to prepare for the conditions with the guys realising how difficult fielding was due to the bumpy nature of the ground,” said Guillen.

He stated that a much better pitch would be prepared for the Carib Shield Twenty20 final and should pose a different challenge to the teams

“There should be a much better wicket because the surface is constantly being used at the WIPA tournament.

I expect them to prepared the surface for the finals and it should be better for when we take on Preysal,” said Guillen.