It is with great interest I am looking at the Trinidad and Tobago selection for the position of head coach of the Men national senior cricket team. There are thirteen local candidates (along with 5 foreigners) vying for the position but for now, I’ll concentrate on national players, leg spinner Samuel Badree, Imran Jan, and former head coach Mervyn Dillon.
In my opinion, the TTCB is in a good place regardless of who gets the job from among these three.
Allow me to start with Samuel Badree, a former national leg spinner who made his mark in the T20 format of the game. He also plied his trade at the Australian Cricket Academy teaching young leg spinners the craft.
Following his outstanding career Badree went on to become a Cricket commentator during the 2019 Caribbean Premier League T20 tournament, I must add, he did an excellent job.
With this aside, Badree was a highly respected spinner and the experience gained in this area will be invaluable. Badree is a teacher by profession and I recall visiting him during his playing days at his home in Central. He is a humble man and knows his stuff as a cricketer and is country-focused. I am of firm belief if selected he will bring these qualities to the job.
The next man in line is the former national captain and opening batsman Imran Jan. He comes from the rural district of Mayaro and both he and his brother Asif worked extremely hard to get onto the national youth and senior teams. To widen his knowledge base Jan spent some time coaching at the junior level. Jan is also on the coaching staff of the Trinbago knight riders CPL T20 unit. Jan is much liked and his contributions during training sessions are respected.
And to round off his resume the Mayaro lad had been recommended by legend and former West Indies opening batsman Desmond Haynes. One cannot get bigger than that.
The third candidate is incumbent Mervyn Dillon. The former National and West Indies fast bowler needs no introduction. His career is well documented. Dillon took charge of the National team and after a truncated up and down season, guided his youthful team into second place during the regional 4-day tournament. l must add, Dillon worked extremely hard with the players.
The only blemish I saw during the season was the off the field incident in which wicket-keeper batsman Denesh Ramdin was ‘ axed ‘ after one game…I thought the way the matter was handled needed a much more professional approach, given that Ramdin is a former national and West Indies captain, should have been given the respect he deserves. That misstep was settled amicably by all parties involved. Putting the incident behind them Mervyn Dillon has an excellent chance to be reinstated to post.
I want to wish these gentlemen all the best as they pursue the position of head coach of the men’s national senior team.
Ten more local coaches and five foreign coaches have thrown their hats in the ring for the job. Here is the full listing:
| 1. | Rayad Emrit | Trinidad & Tobago |
| 2. | Bhoodesh Dookie | Trinidad & Tobago |
| 3. | Gibran Mohammed | Trinidad & Tobago |
| 4. | Davindra Singh | Trinidad & Tobago |
| 5. | Imran Jan | Trinidad & Tobago |
| 6. | Samuel Badree | Trinidad & Tobago |
| 7. | Gregory Davis | Trinidad & Tobago |
| 8. | Mervyn Dillon | Trinidad & Tobago |
| 9. | David Furlonge | Trinidad & Tobago |
| 10. | Vinood Maharaj | Trinidad & Tobago |
| 11. | Sulieman Benn | Barbados |
| 12. | Keshava Ramphal | Trinidad & Tobago |
| 13. | Brian Browne | Trinidad & Tobago |
| 14. | Pasindu Liyanaarachchi | Sri Lanka |
| 15. | Asadullah Khan | Afghanistan |
| 16. | Heinrich Malan | South Africa |
| 17. | Atiq-Uz-Zaman | Pakistan |
| 18. | Roland Sampath | Trinidad & Tobago |
Like I said before, the TTCB is in a good place. I know President Azim Bassarath and his executive will come up with the right person they believe is best suited. I wish them all the best because the future of national cricket and by extention West Indies will benefit greatly.
Quite a nice summary and insight into some of the candidates, Mr. Renn. It is truly an honor to have you contribute to this site.
Respectfully, this article unfortunately is inadequate when knowing and understanding the full story on each candidate. It only glosses over their resumes and I don’t necessarily agree with some of the comments. I’m not here to choose or show negativity but for e.g., what are the cricket qualifications of each of these individuals? I say this ONLY because it’s now a CRITICAL requirement in the modern game. If you do the research, you’ll realise one of these candidates might fall short significantly. Then there’s first class coaching experience…again, one of them will be woefully short of this. There’s more to say, but looking at these two issues alone, you’re easily down to two. Therefore I respectfully summarize by saying this article is poorly composed IN RELATION TO the question posed.