PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Trinidad and Tobago Red Force head coach Gus Logie says his side’s success in the Regional Super50 has silenced their detractors.
Red Force thrashed a star-studded Barbados Pride by 72 runs in Saturday’s final at Queen’s Park Oval, to repeat as champions following their conquest at the same venue last year.
However, they entered the tournament without several of their big name players, with Kieron Pollard, Dwayne and Darren Bravo, Denesh Ramdin, Lendl Simmons and Kevon Cooper all unavailable for a variety of reasons.
Boasting a relatively young side, Red Force played unbeaten in the early stages to install themselves as favourites, and reached the final having dropped just one game.
Darren Bravo and Ramdin eventually returned from West Indies duty in Australia to strengthen the team in the latter stages.
“The fact that we won the tournament speaks volumes. It wasn’t a situation where we had three games, a semi-final and a final, we had two rounds of games,” Logie pointed out.
“Not harping on the negatives but many people thought we weren’t going to get out of the group stage.
“We proved that we were able to get out of the group stages and we got support in the end from Darren when he came and joined us and also Ramdin, which propelled us forward. It gave us more confidence as a team.”
Off-spinner Jon-Russ Jaggesar, a virtual unknown, was handed his regional debut in the tournament and he proved a revelation, leading Red Force’s attack with 14 wickets at 13 runs apiece.
The 29-year-old also bowled superbly in the final, taking two for 30 from nine overs, and also managed to trouble most batsmen in the tournament.
“What can you say about him? This is one of the finds of the season,” said Logie.
“This is a guy who brought forward his stats and said ‘this is what I’ve done at club level, can you give me an opportunity?’ and the rest is history. He was given an opportunity, he grabbed it with both hands.”
He continued: “At the end of the day, it’s a lesson to everybody else. If you’re out there and you believe you’re good enough to make the national team … if you feel you’re good enough, come let’s see you at trials or practice and you never know what can happen.”
Logie, a former Test player and West Indies coach, said plenty work had been done behind the scenes to ensure the successful campaign in the Super50.
“There are so many heroes in this whole system. The coaching staff, the management, you can’t give them enough praise as well for the way they were able to keep everybody together in spite of,” he explained.
“We had challenges both outside and within but we managed to keep everybody in good spirits, keep them focussed, understanding what is at stake. The cricket board must be commended. I think they must feel good about this success because it shows we have depth in our cricket.”
