FORMER West Indies left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn is seeking to become Head Coach of the T&T Red Force senior cricket team.

Applications for the post closed on Thursday afternoon and up until then, the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB) had received 18 applications for the position which became vacant recently.
Also among those applying was 2019-2020 head coach Mervyn Dillon, who held the position from January 2019 until Thursday.

The former West Indies fast bowler carried the team to second in the West Indies Championships, their best finish since 2014 and will be hoping that this sways the TTCB appointed committee conducting the interviews in his favour.

Also among those applying is the coach of the national Under-17 team Rayad Emrit.
Former West Indies leg-spinner Samuel Badree has thrown his hat into the ring as well as former T&T opening batsman Imran Jan. Keshava Ramphal who coached the T&T Under-15 team in 2018 is also interested in the job as well as the former T&T wicketkeeper Gibran Mohammed.

Barbadian Benn, 38, who made his first-class debut in 1999, played at formats for the Caribbean side.
Former national under-17 coach Gregory Davis has also applied as well as current national under-15 coach Brian Browne.

Current Red Force manager and former Queen’s Park coach David Furlonge has also decided to apply having been around the team for a couple of seasons.
The job has attracted international attention with former Pakistan Test batsman Atiq-Uz-Zaman also applying. Zaman was good enough to play one Test and three ODIs for Pakistan in 2000 and do a more than adequate job in them (he took five catches in his only Test against Sri Lanka).

Much of his good work had come in the preceding domestic seasons; he broke a longstanding record for the highest number of dismissals in a season in 2000-01 with 76 victims. He now lives in England, where he is involved in coaching.

Sri Lankan Pasindu Liyanaarachichi has also applied for the post as well as Asadullah Khan of Afghanistan and Heinrich Malan from South Africa.
The TTCB will now look to appoint a committee to interview the 18 applicants before taking their recommendations. The board is expected to put the committee in place by mid-May after which they will wait on directions from the government as to when it is safe to open up their offices again and then interviews will be scheduled.

FULL LIST OF APPLICANTS
Rayad Emrit – Trinidad, Bhoodesh Dookie – T&T, Gibran Mohammed – T&T,
Davindra Singh – T&T, Imran Jan – T&T, Samuel Badree – T&T, Gregory Davis – T&T,Mervyn Dillon – T&T,
David Furlonge – T&T, Vinood Maharaj – T&T, Sulieman Benn – Barbados, Keshava Ramphal – T&T,
Brian Browne – T&T, Pasindu Liyanaarachchi – Sri Lanka, Asadullah Khan – Afghanistan, Heinrich Malan – South Africa, Atiq-Uz-Zaman – Pakistan, Roland Sampath – T&T .(Reprinted fromo T&T Guardian