MONTEGO BAY, St James — A confident Trinidad and Tobago team will take on the Floyd Reifer-led Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) team at Jarrett Park starting this morning in the first round of the 2010 West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB’s) four-day first-class tournament.

Neither team did particularly well in last season’s tournament with Trinidad, who last won the title in 2006, finishing fourth overall with 70 points, while CCC were second to last with 60 points.

The CCC team did, however, chalk up a 63-run win over Trinidad in their return-round game after drawing the first, and will have psychological advantage going into today’s encounter.

Meanwhile, Adrian Grant, who is overseeing the preparation of the Jarrett Park venue, has given it the thumbs up, describing it as “almost perfect” on the eve of the start to the game.

In an interview with the Observer yesterday, Grant said that the constant sunshine yesterday after nearly a week of overcast conditions “did a good job for us today”.

He said the wicket, which “will be a typically Jarrett Park strip, will eventually favour the batsman”.

Meanwhile, Trinidad will be without exciting West Indies opening batsman Adrian Barath, who is suffering with a hamstring injury and has been replaced by Justin Guillien.

Earlier in the week, discarded West Indies batsman Daren Ganga said that despite being without a few key players, Trinidad will have a competitive team.

They will also be without middle-order batsman Darren Bravo (shoulder injury) while Dwayne Bravo and Keiren Pollard are unavailable as they are playing club cricket in Australia.

“Obviously as a captain you will miss the first-choice players who have been with the team and who have established themselves in the side, but I think T&T cricket is strong. We have guys who can fill the void left by the incumbents,” Ganga said.

“I think we have a balanced team with good experience and I believe this is a wonderful opportunity to let some of the other players stake a claim for a spot in the team,” he concluded.

Ganga will lead the T&T batting along with Lendl Simmons and Imran Khan, while Guillen is expected to vie for an opening spot.

Former West Indies Under-19 off-spinner Sunil Narine is also expected to push for a place in the starting XI where he hopes to join West Indies pacer Ravi Rampaul, Dave Mohammed and Amit Jaggernauth in the bowling attack.

Squads:

CCC — Floyd Reifer (captain), Omar Phillips, Kyle Corbin, Simon Jackson, Nekoli Parris, Romel Currency, Chadwick Walton, Ryan Austin, Kavesh Kantasingh, Gilford Moore, Jason Bennett, Kevin McClean, Khismar Catlin.

Trinidad and Tobago — Daren Ganga (captain), Justin Guillien, Dave Mohammed, Lendl Simmons, Jason Mohammed, Ravi Rampual, Denesh Ramdin, Imran Khan, Sherwin Ganga, Sunil Narine, Rayad Emrit, Richard Kelly, Amit Jaggernauth.