T&T Red Force will not be engaging any international players for the next West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Professional Cricket League (PCL) season.
The last meeting of the WICB saw the directors taking an in-depth look at the first PCL season and making a strong recommendation that each of the six territories must include two foreign players for the next season. ‘Foreign’, in this case, means two Caribbean players born outside the respective territories for which they would be allowed to play.
They also made a recommendation that one international player can come in and play as well for each territory.
President of the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB), Azim Bassarath said yesterday said this country will abide by the two regional players rule, but will not be seeking an international player.
The T&T Red Force won the Nagico Super50 title but played dismally in the regional four-day tournament, finishing fifth among the six franchises. This, however will not lead to the TTCB seeking an international player. “We are not entertaining the idea of bringing in an international player because it would be costly and we are not in a position to spend that money right now.
“We will go for two players from outside T&T though, as we did in the first season, we went for one— Ramnaresh Sarwan. Things did not work out as planned but we will go for two regional players for the next season.”
T&T Red Force and eventual winners Guyana Jaguars were the only two franchises that went for players from outside their country. Barbadian Floyd Reifer was picked up by Guyana Jaguars.
Looking at the team structure for the new season, each franchise will contract a minimum of 15 players, as follows: Ten players pre-selected from the home territory; and five players drafted from the pool a minimum of two must be from outside the home territory. Each franchise can have one international player at its own cost.
The franchise must notify the WICB of the players who have been pre-selected by Friday May 1, which is ten days before the draft on May 12. The franchises will then have to submit to the WICB eligible players to be included in the pool by May 1.
The draft will be conducted over five rounds and each franchise must pick a player in each round. Given the fact that the T&T Red Force finished fifth this year, they will be the second team allowed a pick in the draft. The Leewards Hurricanes, who finished bottom of the table, will have the first pick.
