National head coach Gus Logie will continue in his role as head coach for the upcoming Regional Super50 tournament despite the T&T Red Force’s poor showing in the Digicel Professional Cricket League (PCL).
At the end of the pre-christmas phase of the series, the T&T Red Force are at the bottom of the six-team table.
The team started off the campaign with an outright victory against the Windward Hurricanes but since then things have gone downhill and Logie has come under scrutiny by the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB).
The executive of the TTCB headed by Azim Bassarath met with Logie and the selectors last Thursday and, according to third vice-president of the board, Patrick Rampersad, it was very fruitful indeed. Rampersad said: “We had an excellent, open and frank discussion with Gus and the national selectors. At no point in time was the tenure of the coach discussed, as everyone present was more interested in finding ways for a positive outcome.”
The entire executive of the TTCB was present for the meeting in Couva and they were joined by Logie, chairman of selectors Raphick Jumadeen, former Test fast bowler Anthony Gray, Lalman Kowlessar and Roland Sampath, who is also manager of the team.
Rampersad added, “Gus took full responsibility for the performance of the team and admitted that the preparation for the tournament was quite adequate. He could not put his finger on the problem, but I am of the view from our discussions that the problem may be a mental one with our players. Gus may have to go back to his technical people and come up with a proposal for the TTCB to get assistance for the players in this regard. We at the TTCB are very confident that the performances of this team will improve as we move forward. We all agreed that collaboration and discussion is the way forward and the executive has vowed to continue to give tremendous support to the coach and management team in this regard.”
Logie’s tenure as head coach comes to an end after the PCL in March, and he will be looking for a much improved performance from his players when the tournament resumes in March. His first priority now is the Regional Super50 which begins at the end of the month and the T&T Red Force will be defending its title.
