PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Legendary former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd has advised rookie Trinidad and Tobago Red Force captain Yannick Ottley to continue learning from his experiences in his new role at the helm of the side.
The 24-year-old was appointed to lead the squad following regular captain Rayad Emrit’s departure for the Bangladesh Premier League last week, after the second round of matches in the Regional First Class Championship.
Ottley’s leadership career got off to a rocky start as Red Force suffered a six-wicket defeat to Jamaica Scorpions at Queen’s Park Oval on Monday.
“It is his first game [in charge] and I am sure he has learnt something from it and he does not have all these senior players that normally other teams have and he has done pretty well with the young players he has under him,” Lloyd was quoted as saying on the T&T Cricket Board website.
“He seems all right, he has got a couple of good spinners and used them pretty well. I think their batting in the second innings really let them down.
“They could have probably gotten more runs in the first innings and this would have been a very interesting game. Once they batted to the afternoon it would have given them 200 runs and Jamaica would have had to have a go at it.”
Ottley is seen as one of Red Force’s players for the future. Since making his first class debut three years ago, the right-handed middle order batsman has played 20 matches but with moderate success, averaging just 21 with three half-centuries.
The last of those fifties was his career-best 82 which came in the penultimate fixture last season against eventual champions Guyana Jaguars in Georgetown, and which helped Red Force to draw the contest.
Lloyd said he had noticed some mistakes in Ottley’s on-field captaincy but expected this area to improve with time.
“You first have to get your players to trust you and you have to learn the rudiments of the game, you have to learn the game and read the game properly,” said Lloyd, the current chairman of West Indies selectors.
“Field-setting is something I have seen here that was sort of iffy; their field placing sometimes has been a little bit tardy. Then again they are young fellas and they will learn as they go along.”
