T&T Red Force to feature in Super50...

T&T Red Force to feature in Super50...


Vinode Mamchan
Published: Guardian
Sunday, August 31, 2014

Local cricket fans will be pleased to know that with all the new changes in the structure of West Indies cricket and franchise cricket coming on stream, their beloved Red Force will remain intact at least for one tournament. President of the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB), Azim Bassarath said that the limited overs aspect remains as is and will not be played under the franchise system. The Red Force who dominated regional T20 and limited overs cricket was dis-mantled when the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 tournament was formalised. The Red Force was the toast of the region in T20 cricket, making four appearances in the Champions League T20 tournament.

The team has now been spread across the region for the CPL, to the extent that three Red Force players are captaining different teams in the competition. Dwayne Bravo captains the T&T Red Steel, Keiron Pollard captains the Barbados Tridents and Denesh Ramdin is at the helm of the Guyana Amazon Warriors. Recently the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) hired a new cricket operations manager in Richard Pybus and he made a 20-point presentation to the WICB executive - all of which were adopted. The last point was making regional First Class cricket franchised based and this means that the T&T senior cricket team will have only 10 players from this country on board.

The WICB has however decided to leave the territories intact for the Super50 tournament and this is where fans can enjoy the entire Red Force outfit playing together. As soon as January next year fans will have a chance to see the Red Force play together again, when they take part in the Nagico Super50, which will be played in T&T. Bassarath added that it is his board's intentions to keep the Red Force together for T20 cricket as well. “Under the guidelines set out by CPL, there can be no T20 tournament involving more than three teams in the Caribbean.

We are owed some money by the SPORTT and it is our hope that once we can get the funds, then we would be able to host a tri-nation series and play it every year, involving our Red Force team. At different times we can bring in different Caribbean countries to play, so that we play everyone and keep the Red Force T20 brand out there.”

TNt seems parochial just does not want west indian unity