Vin­ode Mam­chan

For­mer West In­dies un­der-19 vice-cap­tain Yan­nick Ot­t­ley will cap­tain T&T Red Force to­day, when they op­pose Ja­maican Scor­pi­ons in their third round PCL 4-day clash at the Queen's Park Oval, Port-of-Spain start­ing at 9.30 am.

Ot­t­ley takes over the reigns from reg­u­lar cap­tain Rayad Em­rit, who has opt­ed to play in the Bangladesh Pre­mier League. Speak­ing on his el­e­va­tion, the all rounder said: "It is a bit ex­cit­ing at the mo­ment and it is an ho­n­our to cap­tain my coun­try. I can't wait for the game against Ja­maica. I just want to do my best and lead from the front.

"I def­i­nite­ly did not ex­pect to be named cap­tain at this young age when I start­ed play­ing first class crick­et. This has been ex­cit­ing and part of my de­vel­op­ment from youth crick­et where I have cap­tained sev­er­al youth teams."

He con­tin­ued: "It is a bit of pres­sure start­ing my cap­tain­cy at home be­cause the fans want to see re­sults. We want to en­ter­tain as well and pro­duce the re­sults for our coun­try so it is just for us to go out there and do well."

Ot­t­ley will have as his deputy, ex­pe­ri­enced Guyanese im­port Nars­ingh De­onar­ine, who has played 18 Tests and 128 first class games.Com­ing in­to the team is open­er Je­re­my Solozano, fast bowler Mar­lon Richards and all rounder Uth­man Mohmmed. They will re­place Evin Lewis, Em­rit and Shan­non Gabriel re­spec­tive­ly.

The T&T Red Force has made a good start to this year's cam­paign with an open­ing win against the Lee­wards Hur­ri­cances and a cred­i­ble draw against a strong Bar­ba­dos Pride at Kens­ing­ton Oval in Bar­ba­dos. They cur­rent­ly lie third.

The Ja­maicans have one win and a loss. Chair­man of the In­ter­na­tion­al Match­es Com­mit­tee from the T&T Crick­et Board (TTCB), Az­im Bas­sarath said all is in place for the open­ing First Class match of the sea­son at home and he is ex­pect­ing the crick­et fans to sup­port the fran­chise over the next few days.

SQUADS

T&T Red Force � Yan­nick Ot­t­ley (cap­tain), Nars­ingh De­onar­ine (vice-cap­tain), Je­re­my Solozano, Kjorn Ot­t­ley, Yan­nic Cari­ah, Im­ran Khan, Steven Kat­wa­roo, Uth­man Mo­hammed, Daniel St. Clair, Mar­lon Richards, Kyle Hope, Kavesh Kan­tas­ingh, Bryan Charles.

Ja­maica Scor­pi­ons - Paul Palmer (capt), John Camp­bell, Kirk Ed­wards, An­dre Mc­Carthy, Tamar Lam­bert, Chad­wick Wal­ton, David Bernard, Niki­ta Miller, Damion Ja­cobs, Mar­quino Mind­ley, Ja­son Dawes, De­von Thomas, Nichol­son Gor­don.

Fran­chis­es M W L D Pts

Guyana Jaguars 2 2 0 0 35

Bar­ba­dos Pride 2 1 0 1 25

T&T Red Force 2 1 0 1 23

Ja­maica Scor­pi­ons 2 1 0 1 8

Wind­wards Vol­ca­noes 2 0 0 2 7

Lee­wards Hur­ri­canes 2 0 0 2 4