While the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB) waits to see if regular T&T Red Force captain Denesh Ramdin, is selected for the Windies Twenty20 (T20) tour of Bangladesh, the news is that they are considering all-rounder Yannic Cariah for the role of captain for the upcoming Professional Cricket League (PCL).
Ramdin, the regular captain of the Red Force, is likely to miss the second match of the West Indies Four-Day championship if he is selected for the Bangladesh tour. In his absence, it is understood that the selectors headed by former Test player Anthony Gray, is looking in the direction of the Queen’s Park player Cariah.
Cricket operations manager at the TTCB Dudnath Ramkessoon said that there will be no more trial matches and the team for the opening match was selected over the weekend and will be released to the media soon. The final trial match ended last week with a number of players addressing the selectors with noted performances.
The first match of the tournament for the Red Force will be on December 13 at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in South Trinidad, as their first-round encounter against Jamaica carded for the Queen's Park Oval has been postponed. The game was originally carded to take place on December 6 but the Oval is unavailable and so too Brian Lara Cricket Academy. At the end of the clash at Brian Lara Academy, the teams will take a break for Christmas before the tournament resumes in the first week of January.
This was confirmed by the president of the TTCB, Azim Bassarath who said this game will now be played from March 14, 2019, at the Oval. The Brian Lara Cricket Academy has been out of commission for a little while as the surface has been worked on for improvement in grass cover. The pitches have also been grassed and the authorities there are hoping for a much-improved surface at the southern venue.
The pitches at the Oval are being relaid at the same time and hence this country is unable to host any matches around the period December 6 to 9. The National Cricket Centre (NCC) is available but no First Class matches could be played there as the venue does not meet the minimum standards agreed to between Cricket West Indies (CWI) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA).
Bassarath said the postponement may well work in favour of the Red Force team, as it gives the players more time to prepare before going into the competition. "A lot of our trial games were affected by the rain and terrible floods that we have been experiencing and this extra time may well work for the players. They can probably put in some extra work now before the action starts."
Red Force, who recently bowed out at the semi-final stages of the Regional Super50, finished at the bottom of the table in the PCL last season and they will be hoping to get a good start this time around, in order to make a serious bid to win the title.