TKR assistant coach interested in Red Force job

IMRAN Jan is enthusiastic about the opportunity to coach the TT Red Force cricket team.

Jan, a former national cricketer, will be hoping to get the nod ahead of current Red Force head coach Mervyn Dillon. The TT Cricket Board started advertising for the position last week.

Jan has been an assistant coach of the Trinbago Knight Riders in the Hero Caribbean Premier League for six years, helping the team to three titles.

He is currently a coach at Queen’s Park Cricket Club, where he also coached in previous years.

Jan also spent nine years as a coach at the University of TT.

“I have expressed my interest in the (Red Force) position and what I can bring to the table with regards to my experiences,” Jan told Newsday on Saturday.

Dillon was appointed Red Force coach in January 2019, replacing Kelvin Williams. Dillon’s contract expires at the end of April.

Dillon plans to reapply for the position and is positive that he is the man for the job.

“I am quite confident. I think I am probably in a better position than anybody else to retain the job,” Dillon said on Friday.

Since Dillon’s appointment, Red Force have shown improvement.

After four rounds of competition in the 2019 West Indies Four-Day Championship, Williams stepped down as coach after starting the season with three losses and one win.

Dillon led the team to a fourth-place finish as the team recorded three wins, one draw and two losses in the remaining six matches under his guidance. At the end of 2019, Red Force stormed into the semi-finals of the Colonial Medical Insurance 50-Over tournament with seven wins in eight matches in Group B. However, Red Force lost in the semi-finals by four wickets to the Leeward Islands Hurricanes.

In the recently concluded 2020 West Indies Four-Day Championship, Red Force finished second to champions Barbados Pride. Dillon led the team to three wins, two losses and three draws in eight matches before the competition ended. The final two rounds were cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.