For­mer West In­dies fast bowler Mervyn Dil­lon will con­tin­ue as coach of the T&T Red Force team for the up­com­ing re­gion­al sea­son. This ac­cord­ing to the pres­i­dent of the T&T Crick­et Board (TTCB), Az­im Bas­sarath on Thurs­day.

Dil­lon took over as na­tion­al coach af­ter the fail­ings of Kelvin Williams in the head coach po­si­tion. Williams was re­placed af­ter a string of de­feats in the 2018/19 se­ries and Dil­lon who was part of his coach­ing staff came in­to the po­si­tion in Jan­u­ary 2019.

Dil­lon, 44, a To­co na­tive played 38 Tests for the re­gion­al team and took 131 wick­ets. The right-arm bowler al­so played 108 One-Day In­ter­na­tion­als and col­lect­ed 130 wick­ets. He is al­so a qual­i­fied Lev­el III Crick­et West In­dies cer­ti­fied coach. At the time of his ap­point­ment TTCB pres­i­dent, Az­im Bas­sarath said: "We have high ex­pec­ta­tions for Mr Dil­lon as he brings a wealth of ex­pe­ri­ence to the job. The TTCB pres­i­dent con­tin­ued: “He re­alis­es the great re­spon­si­bil­i­ty that has been placed on him and we are con­fi­dent that he will ef­fect the turn­around in the for­tunes of the Red Force.”

Dil­lon has won the nod of the pres­i­dent af­ter turn­ing around the for­tunes of the team to­wards the end of the tour­na­ment with two wins, a loss and a draw but it was too lit­tle too late, as the team was in the last po­si­tion when he as­sumed the role.

Bas­sarath told Guardian Me­dia Sports yes­ter­day that, "Dil­lon is the ap­point­ed coach and will con­tin­ue in the role." TTCB to cut costs de­cid­ed to use man­ag­er David Fur­longe who is a lo­cal coach, as as­sis­tant coach to Dil­lon. At the mo­ment there are no se­lec­tors ap­point­ed and Bas­sarath added that some­time in Sep­tem­ber a meet­ing will be held to ap­point se­lec­tors at the se­nior lev­el. The last chair­man of the pan­el was An­tho­ny Gray who trav­elled the length and breadth of the coun­try look­ing at the play­ers in ac­tion. He is high­ly favoured to re­tain his po­si­tion.

The first as­sign­ment for the Red Force will be the Re­gion­al Su­per50, which takes place in No­vem­ber. There is a pro­pos­al be­fore the West In­dies board to have the match­es played in Trinidad and Bar­ba­dos. This is yet to be rat­i­fied by CWI.