​T&T Red Force coach Rayad Em­rit is pleased with the progress of the bats­men ahead of the CG Unit­ed Su­per 50 start­ing Wednes­day (No­vem­ber 19).

Em­rit pre­vi­ous­ly ex­pressed con­cern over the form of the bats­men, de­spite the bowlers show­ing good form. How­ev­er, in a tele­phone in­ter­view, the for­mer West In­dies all-rounder said he is hap­py with the bat­ting at present.

“Since the last time we spoke, the bat­ters have played a cou­ple of prac­tice games, and our bat­ters ac­tu­al­ly got some runs. So, it's a good sign to see the bat­ters get­ting runs. We had an­oth­er prac­tice ses­sion to­day, and over the past week, the ses­sions went re­al­ly, re­al­ly well. I think the guys are get­ting there. We're in a good place. The guys are in a good place,” said Em­rit.

He al­so praised spe­cif­ic play­ers who have been called up by the West In­dies in the last 12 months. They will be adding in­valu­able ex­pe­ri­ence to the team, which will be miss­ing Jay­den Seales, An­der­son Phillip, Khary Pierre and Akeal Ho­sein, who are all out on West In­dies du­ty.

“And see­ing that the team will have the likes of Jyd Goolie, Navin Bidaisee, and the skip­per, Joshua Da Sil­va. These guys will be part of the team,” Em­rit added.

He shared that he ex­pects a lot of his play­ers to step up.

“We know what they're ca­pa­ble of. We hope that they con­tin­ue the good form that they have been show­ing through­out the year. Both Jyd and Josh have played at this lev­el for a while now, so they are ex­pe­ri­enced enough.”

Em­rit re­it­er­at­ed that the bowl­ing will be in good hands de­spite the miss­ing quar­tet men­tioned ear­li­er.

“We have Joshua James, one of our best all-rounders. Al­so, Ter­ence Hinds has shown good form with bat and ball in our prac­tice games lead­ing up to the tour­na­ment. We have a very bal­anced team,” Em­rit said. “We have a bit of young­sters in the team as well. It's good that we can blend the se­nior guys with the young­sters. I know that we have our crick­et fans here in Trinidad.”

The for­mer Red Force cap­tain is call­ing on the sup­port for the team as they com­pete against the five oth­er ter­ri­to­ries for 50-Over glo­ry and add to the record tal­ly of 15 ti­tles in the for­mat.

“It would be re­al­ly nice if the crowd could come out and we get those packed sta­di­ums for the 50-over crick­et,” Em­rit said.

The coach al­so re­called his own play­ing days when he donned the Red Force uni­form at the re­gion­al lev­el.

“I have played at a packed Oval where we played against Bar­ba­dos and Guyana in 50-over fi­nals, where it was al­ways packed to ca­pac­i­ty. It would be nice if we could get back that kind of sup­port. I know there are some ex­cit­ing play­ers in our team.”

He says this gen­er­a­tion of play­ers would ben­e­fit from that kind of sup­port as well.

“A lot of ex­cit­ing play­ers in our team. Not just in our team, but the en­tire Caribbean. There's go­ing to be ex­cit­ing play­ers on show.”

To­mor­row's match­es

At Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my: Wind­ward Is­lands Vol­ca­noes vs Lee­ward Is­lands Hur­ri­canes, 2 pm

At Queen’s Park Oval: Ja­maica Scor­pi­ons vs Guyana Harpy Ea­gles, 9 am

At UWI SPEC: Trinidad and To­ba­go vs Bar­ba­dos, 9 am

Squads

T&T Red Force: Joshua Da Sil­va (cap­tain), Navin Bidaisee, Yan­nic Cari­ah, Bryan Charles, Cephas Coop­er, Jyd Goolie, Ter­rance Hinds, Ricky Jaipaul, Joshua James, Ja­son Mo­hammed, Kjorn Ot­t­ley, Sha­trughan Ram­baran, Ab­dul-Ra­heem Top­pin, Tion Web­ster.

Head coach: Rayad Em­rit

Ja­maica Scor­pi­ons: Brad Barnes (cap­tain), An­dre Bai­ley, Jer­maine Black­wood, Car­los Brown, Khari Camp­bell, Javelle Glenn, Jor­dan John­son, Kirk McKen­zie, Mar­quino Mind­ley, Ro­maine Mor­ris, Ab­hi­jai Mans­ingh, Jeav­or Roy­al, Tamarie Red­wood, Peat Salmon.

Head coach: Robert Haynes

Bar­ba­dos Pride: Kyle May­ers (cap­tain), Joshua Bish­op, Leniko Bouch­er, Kraigg Brath­waite, Do­minic Drakes, Jonathan Drakes, Matthew Jones, Akeem Jor­dan, Javed Lea­cock, Zachary Mc­Cask­ie, Demetrius Richards, Ke­mar Smith, Kevin Wick­ham, Ny­eem Young.

Head coach: Vas­bert Drakes

Wind­wards Vol­ca­noes: Ted­dy Bish­op (cap­tain), Sunil Am­bris, McKen­ny Clarke, Darel Cyrus, Ken­neth Dem­ber, Shadrack Descarte, Dil­lon Dou­glas, Keon Gas­ton, Jo­hann Je­re­mi­ah, Daniel Mc­Don­ald, Ki­mani Melius, Kirt­sen Mur­ray, Dar­ron Nedd, Stephan Pas­cal.

Head coach: Keon Pe­ters

Lee­ward Is­lands Hur­ri­canes: Kari­ma Gore (cap­tain), Jew­el An­drew, Car­lon Bowen-Tuck­ett, Rah­keem Corn­wall, Daniel Do­ram, Nathan Ed­ward, Chamiqueko Gumbs-Lan­de­fort, Jah­mar Hamil­ton, Kofi James, Mikyle Louis, Mic­ah Mcken­zie, Ish­mael Pe­ters, Os­hane Thomas, Ty­rone Williams.

Head coach: Steve Liburd

Guyana Harpy Ea­gles: Matthew Nan­du (cap­tain), Antony Adams, Ronal­do Al­imo­hamed, Kevlon An­der­son, Shamar Ap­ple, Maven­dra Dindyal, Thad­deus Lovell, Richie Look­nauth, Gu­dakesh Motie, Keemo Paul, Ray­mond Perez, Ke­mol Sa­vory, Ju­nior Sin­clair, Sy­lus Tyn­dall.

Head coach: Ryan Her­cules