Red Force coach impressed with young brigade

Trinidad and Tobago Red Force finished third on the standings, behind Guyana Jaguars and Barbados Pride.

With the Red Force struggling in the latter stages of the tournament, the selection panel included batsman Akiel Cooper, all-rounder Tion Webster and wicketkeeper Amir Jangoo — who were yet to play at the First Class levels, away to Barbados Pride and the Leeward Islands Hurricanes respectively.

And the Red Force responded with convincing wins, by 130 runs over the Pride and by an innings and 17 runs against the Hurricanes.

Cooper tallied 72 runs at an average of 24.0 while Webster had 116 runs at 38.66, including a maiden First Class century — 109 against the Hurricanes.

Jangoo finished second on the batting averages with 49.66, with a total of 149 runs, including a knock of 71 against the Pride.

During a recent interview, Logie commented, “it’s nice to see the young players being given an opportunity. And it’s not only the opportunity that they’ve got (but) they’ve grabbed it with both hands.

“For me personally, seeing Tion Webster coming in and registering his first First Class hundred, it’s certainly a joy to behold. The way he played, the maturi- ty which he showed, he showed a lot of courage and confidence in his own ability. He went out there fearless and you can’t coach that. At the end of the day, that’s something that’s there and you just have to nurture.” The former TT captain and West Indies vice-captain pointed out, “I just wanted to have a special mention to Jangoo. I thought he brought a lot to the team.

His courage and his belief rubbed off a lot on the players. It’s good to see. He brought a freshness and it was really and truly welcomed. I don’t think he showed any kind of fear. That was good to see.” Logie also hailed the contributions of opening batsman, Barbados-born Kyle Hope (one of three players to captain the team this season), who topped the batting averages with 49.92 and was second in terms of batting aggregate with 649; and Yannic Cariah — the leading run-getter with 691 at 43.18.

He noted, “we know Imran (Khan), he’ll always take wickets because he’s that type of bowler.” Khan was the leading bowler for the Red Force with 44 at 20.68.

He also highlighted the performance of Barbadian all-rounder Roshon Primus, who made 352 runs and took 21 wickets. “(It was) a good all-round performance (though) he missed two or three games,” Logie said.

“There are individuals who stepped up at certain stages and, if all things being equal, if we’d all been fit (and) all been focused, I think we could have had an even better season.” Trinidad and Tobago Red Force also stumbled at the Regional Super50 Tournament, as they were eliminated by Jamaica Scorpions in the semi-final stage.

“In the 50-overs, we had what we called experienced players, whether we like it or not, with maybe one or two inexperienced players, like (Nicholas) Alexis and Khary Pierre. The rest of the players on that squad were experienced players.

At the end of the day, what happened? “When you looked at the previous year, we won it (and) we had possibly two experienced players, in (Darren) Bravo and (Denesh) Ramdin coming down to the end,” Logie continued.

“The inexperienced players actually won out the (title) for us. So it doesn’t really compute that if you had experienced players you’re going to win.

“It’s performances that makes you win games or lose games. It doesn’t matter where you come from, if you perform, the chances are you’re going to perform better than the opposition and you’re going to win.

If you don’t perform better than your opposition, you’re not going to win. I think that’s the mantra for me going forward.” Primus and ex-Jamaica and West Indies fast bowler Sheldon Cottrell were the players drafted by the Red Force for the 2016-2017 season.

Asked if they may be retained in the next draft, Logie replied, “it’s up to us. If we believe they are (assets) to the team, then it’s up to the Board to contract them. But that (decision) would have to be made by the selectors and approved by the Board before the next draft is concerned.

“I think these players would have done well enough to suggest that they can be part and parcel of the Red Force.

I think it’s up to use to decide if we want to keep them or not. As far as I’m concerned, they’re players who ought to be retained,” ended the ex- TT and WI middle-order batsman.