Bryan Charles anxious for cricket after mentally draining downtime

OFF spinner Bryan Charles is anxious to take the field again for the TT Red Force, saying it was mentally draining that the covid19 pandemic forced the regional four-day competition to shut down for two years.

In March 2020 with two rounds remaining in the West Indies Four-Day Championships the tournament was brought to a halt because of the pandemic.

Barbados Pride were handed the title and the Red Force had to settle for second place.

The region’s four-day cricketers have been starved of cricket.

The players have been training with the hope of cricket resuming and can now breathe a sigh of relief with the 2022 tournament just days away.

Red Force will open their 2022 campaign against Jamaica Scorpions from February 9-12 and then face Windward Islands Volcanoes from February 15-18.

Both matches will be played at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba. Charles said many times over the past two years players felt the tournament was about to bowl off, but the pandemic forced Cricket West Indies to postpone the resumption of the four-day competition repeatedly.

“During that time they said the tournament was coming up about three times, so it is really mentally draining to be preparing hard for it and then they calling it off,” Charles said.

Charles said everyone kept “pulling through.”

Charles, a former West Indies Under-19 player, has been performing creditably in Red Force practice matches.

“I think the form is pretty well. The performances will build confidence a good bit. I got 16 wickets in the two (recent practice) games.”

Charles believes the hard work is paying off.

“We have been training a lot, so it is good to see some performances after all that training we did for the past few months.”

Charles said the team is keenly anticipating the four-day championships. “I think most of the guys, along with myself, pretty anxious to play the tournament. We have been waiting a long time…it is almost two years since we played and we also came second in the (last) tournament.”

Charles thinks Red Force are equipped with the personnel to be competitive.

“Watching the team I think we are a pretty balanced team. We have good experienced players like the captain Imran Khan, Jason Mohammed and we have the Test players as well (including) Jayden Seales, Shannon (Gabriel) and Joshua (Da Silva) as well, so I think the chances are pretty good.”

Charles also believes the rest of the players have the ability.

During the last two years, Charles has continued to improve on his game and is eager to deliver strong performances to get the attention of the West Indies selectors.

“I have been doing a lot of work on my batting, as well as a few variations in my bowling, as well as some fitness work to really maintain (my fitness) because we were not really sure when the cricket will be starting.”

Before the pandemic, the Red Force batsmen were inconsistent but did show signs of improvement in the last four-day season.

“I think the batsmen have done a lot of technical work…I think our batsmen are already capable, (but) it is just a matter of shot selection and patience while they were playing. I think that is what was lacking so once they improve in that aspect I think we will be doing very well,” Charles said.

RED FORCE SQUAD

Imran Khan (captain), Joshua Da Silva (vice-captain), Jeremy Solozano, Keagan Simmons, Jyd Goolie, Jason Mohammed, Yannic Cariah, Khary Pierre, Terrance Hinds, Anderson Phillip, Jayden Seales, Isaiah Rajah, Kirstan Kallicharan, Bryan Charles, Shannon Gabriel