Red Force serve humble pie at Kensington

In my years of representing Trinidad and Tobago in cricket, the toughest assignments were the games against Barbados. It didn’t matter where it was played, whether at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain or Kensington Oval in Bridgetown.

Most times, the Barbadians were the winners or had the better exchanges in a drawn game. It was always the team one had to beat to challenge for the championship of the West Indies. Barbados won the championship on 23 occasions since it began on a league basis in 1966. TT won it outright only four times (they shared it once with Barbados in 1976).

For any TT cricketer, past or present, it must have been satisfying to embarrass their hosts Barbados, particularly in the way it was done. A defeat of Barbados at Kensington in two days of a four-day game was inconceivable.

My heartiest congratulations to the TT team who performed this rare feat. The jubilation is greater especially when against historical rivals. The driving force behind the team, Joshua Da Silva, the captain, played a significant role in guiding his players, bowlers and batsmen, with a deft touch of leadership qualities that had his players responding in a positive way to win this all-important game.

It is admirable of Da Silva to recover this quickly from his disappointment in Pakistan. A sportsman always has to know how to face the odds and deal with it. The TT captain was chosen to tour Pakistan as vice-captain for two Test matches.

He was dropped for both Tests. He took it without a murmur. On his return, he knuckled down to hard practice and continued with his application to improve his batting and wicket-keeping. As captain of the TT Red Force, he led them to three victories and one drawn game, while he has scored three centuries in those four games. He didn’t allow the circumstance of being dropped to have a negative effect on him, showing that he has the determination and the willpower to never say die.

His West Indian captain Kraigg Brathwaite, on the other hand, has been out of form for over a year and is struggling to keep his WI and Barbados teams together and improve his win-lose ratio. Coincidentally, Brathwaite was the Barbados Pride’s captain in their annihilation at the hands of Da Silva’s Red Force team.

Cricket is not easy. To conquer it, one has to be mentally attuned to every aspect of the game the higher up the ladder one climbs. As Sir Donald Bradman once said, no one can master the game of cricket because one never stops learning the game.

I have to praise Anderson Phillip, Jayden Seales and Joshua James. They are very positive bowlers and they must continue to practice regularly. In the case of Seales and Phillip, both have to know how to pace themselves as they have a tough County cricket schedule before them and they don’t want to burn themselves out too early in the summer.

I predict a fine future for James as well. He's very talented.

Khary Pierre has been fantastic. The left-arm-orthodox bowler captured 31 wickets in four games. Yannic Cariah’s bowling is also very tidy and deserves better figures. Bryan Charles bowled well but without luck.

Apart from Da Silva, there has been some solid batting from the opening batsman Cephas Cooper, plus the stroke-making of Kamil Pooran. Amir Jangoo shows why he deserved his Test selection and Jyd Goolie is very promising. Cariah is solid in the middle, showing sound all-round capabilities and so is Pierre.

I left Jason Mohammed for last because he’s superb in the way he’s playing. I admire his tenacity and perseverance. I wish him good luck in his ambition to get a shot at Test cricket.

The Pride left too much grass on their wicket. The Trinidadians made very good use of it. On the field, Red Force looked like a solid unit and played like winners from the first ball. The home team’s plan from the beginning was to distract the visitors with pace, but it backfired.

The TT side has a new fighting spirit as they seem to be more positive in their outlook which fosters a winning approach and an attitude that transforms into successful results.

Well done to coach Rayad Emrit, he deserves the kudos.

Nonetheless, it’s not over. Keep up the good work!