BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (CMC):

Trinidad and Tobago youth coach Larry Gomes believes he should be part of the selection panel and says he will make this recommendation to cricket authorities when he returns from the TCL West Indies Under-19 tournament here.

The T&T under-19 selection panel is headed by well-known sports administrator Lalman Kowlessar and includes former T&T and West Indies all-rounder Bernard Julien and ex-national left-handed batsman Aneil Rajah.

Gomes contended, however, that the coach should be a part of the selection process and not simply given a team to oversee.

"The coach should have an input into the selection of the team. You don't give a coach a squad of 16 guys and tell him to leave out two players," the former West Indies middle-order batsman said after T&T's below-par performance in the just included three-day phase of the tournament.

"It is a bit unfair to the coach. I really believe the coach should have a bigger input into the selection of the team."

T&T ended in third position in the six team standings while Guyana retained the Challenge title with a convincing win over Barbados on Saturday in their final round match.

Disappointed with the performance

T&T team manager Narsingh Rambaran blamed the fragile middle order for his team's woes.

"I am very disappointed with the performance of the middle-order, which has led to the failures of our team, throughout the tournament," Rambaran lamented.

"Whenever an 11 is selected, we have to adjust our batting order and ever since the tournament started it has been a failure. There is nothing else we can do about it, as most of the players do not have the discipline and application in their batting, hence the reason why we have to crumble all times in the middle.

"With the exception of Bravo (Darren), Barath (Adrian), Dookeran (Milton) and to a lesser extent Anthony Balgobin, nobody else has pulled their weight in the batting."