Title or bust for Red Force

EXPERIENCED TT Red Force wicket-keeper Denesh Ramdin said anything less than winning the title in the CG Insurance Super50 tournament is a failure, as the local team is stacked with senior and quality players.

West Indies T20 and 50-Over captain Kieron Pollard will lead the Red Force at the tournament which bowls off in Antigua, on Sunday. Red Force will play its opening match against Jamaica Scorpions on February 11 at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, at 9 am.

Among the players who will line up for Red Force are Lendl Simmons, Evin Lewis, Darren Bravo, Nicholas Pooran, Sunil Narine, Khary Pierre, Jason Mohammed, Akeal Hosein and Imran Khan. Ramdin and one member from the other five franchises spoke to journalists on Zoom, on Thursday.

Asked if anything less than the title will be a failure, Ramdin said, “Yeah I would say so. Having all the international players back with the experience is important that we go out and execute. All the players making themselves available we want to go out there and win the title, but as I said we can’t win the title by just saying it, we need to go out there and perform as well. The other teams are coming for us (as) one of the strongest teams in the tournament on paper.”

He added, “At the end of the day we are going to take it one game at a time. As I said before, we are going to go out there and enjoy our cricket which is most important. Our captain is very passionate and he wants to go out there and do well.”

Seven Red Force players are playing in the Abu Dhabi T10 League and will join their team-mates in Antigua after the T10 league ends on Saturday. Pollard, Narine, Ravi Rampaul, Simmons, Pooran, Lewis and Kjorn Ottley are in Abu Dhabi. Ramdin said Red Force will avoid complacency as “it is important that we don’t take the oppostion for granted” as “everyone has an opportunity to win the tournament.”

Scorpions are also equipped with experience and talent with Rovman Powell, Brandon King, Fabian Allen, Andre McCarthy, Oshane Thomas and Sheldon Cottrell in the squad. Cottrell said he is not concerned that the team did not have much practice matches. “I don’t think it will affect us much because we’ve put in a lot of work,” Cottrell said. “We’ve worked on a lot of fitness and I think (coaches) Andre Coley and Nikita Miller have done a wonderful job with all that’s going on, but I think we are ready...the spirit of the team is quite good and we have a wonderful balance - a mixture with some young guys (and) some experience. I think we have a good chance.”

Cottrell said Powell, King and Allen will join the team following the conclusion of the Abu Dhabi T10 League. Barbados Pride captain Jason Holder, Emmanuel Stewart of Windward Islands Volcanoes, Hayden Walsh Jnr of Leeward Islands Hurricanes and Shimron Hetmyer of Guyana Jaguars also took questions from the media.