Red Force ready for Super50 challenge

COACH of the TT Red Force David Furlonge, says that reserve players will be on hand to join the squad during the CG Insurance Super50 Cup, in case any member of the 15-man team tests positive for covid19, or is ruled out due to injury.

The TT Red Force, beaten semi-finalists in the previous edition in 2019, will leave for Antigua on Saturday to compete in the 2021 regional 50-overs tournament, which will run from February 7-27. During the West Indies tour of Bangladesh, leg-spinner Hayden Walsh jnr was ruled out of the three-match One Day International (ODI) series after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Furlonge said on Monday, “We have reserve players for injury and health (reasons). With covid, we have heightened our protocols and we have reduced the number of players practising this week.”

The Red Force coach continued, “If one player in training was to get (a positive covid19 test), that means your entire training squad will be in quarantine for the next 14 days, which will rule them out of the tournament. We just have to be careful, follow the protocols introduced by the Ministry of Health.”

Six members of the Red Force team have been in training for the past week – vice-captain Darren Bravo, Denesh Ramdin, Imran Khan, Jayden Seales, Khary Pierre and Anderson Phillip.

Jason Mohammed, Akeal Hosein and Kjorn Ottley are with the WI ODI squad in Bangladesh while captain Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Evin Lewis, Nicholas Pooran, Ravi Rampaul and Lendl Simmons are involved with the Abu Dhabi T10 League, which runs from January 28 to February 6.

According to Furlonge, “Training has been going good. We’ve been getting good weather. We had a mandatory CWI fitness test (on Monday). We had a covid test on Friday and everybody returned negative, (both) players and staff. We’re scheduled to do another test this week. Hopefully that will also be negative.”

The Red Force will have practice sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the National Cricket Centre, Couva.

Cricket West Indies (CWI) released the fixtures for the Super50 Cup on Monday, with the Red Force beginning their title quest with a meeting against the Jamaica Scorpions at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium at North Sound.

Furlonge said, “(In terms of) mindset, our players are professionals. Hopefully we’ll have a couple days before the first game, when they come from Dubai, after they finish their quarantine, for us to get together. I’m not worried at all.

“Our whole squad has been in a bubble for some time (in the past) year, so they know what’s it all about,” he added. “It will help the team bond together, having to stay in one area and nobody (will be allowed) to go out. That might be a plus for us.”