GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC):

Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), with eight titles at this level, start their KFC Cup title defence with a first round game against the Combined Colleges and Campuses at the Guyana National Stadium today.

T&T, who beat the Windwards in the last final this year in St. Vincent, have a powerful batting line-up spearheaded by skipper Daren Ganga, who is prolific at the regional level.

Senior players

The team from the twin-island republic boast eight players who have represented the West Indies at the senior level and will be aiming to continue their recent success in regional senior cricket.

Ganga, Kieron Pollard, Lendl Simmons, Sherwin Ganga, Mario Belcon, Denesh Ramdin and Dwayne Bravo are all capable of dominating at this level.

Rayad Emrit, Mervyn Dillon and Ravi Rampaul, all with West Indies experience, will be keen to show that pacers can be successful on Guyana pitches which should be more to the liking of spinners Amit Jaggernauth and Magnum Nanan.

T&T hope to make light work of the students who have never won a game at this level in two previous tournaments.

The students, then under the banner of University of the West Indies (UWI), played in the Jamaica zone of the 2002 tournament, and again in 2003 in Antigua without success. They will depend heavily on former Barbados and West Indies left-hander Floyd Reifer if they are to prove competitive this time around.

The 35-year-old Reifer, who played four Tests and two ODIs for the West Indies, has nine first-class tons from 105 first-class matches under his belt and has been in dominant form for the UWI Cave Hill campus in this year's Barbados Division 1 competition.

Skipper Shirley Clarke, the 30-year-old who played two regional limited-overs games for Barbados two years ago, will need to step up to the plate as a batsman.

Provide resistance

The presence of Windward Islands' first-class pair, Rommel Currency and Craig Emmanuel, should provide resistance to the T&T attack on what is anticipated to be a slow and low track.

The 25-year-old Jason Parris has also played first-class cricket, while Guyanese Ramnarine Chattergoon gets the opportunity of playing in the same regional competition with his elder brother, West Indies opener Sewnarine Chattergoon, and should lend batting support and help to bring the locals to their matches.