Sports Minister removes T&T from Red Steel’s name, angers Captain

[www.inewsguyana.com] – The Trinidad and Tobago franchise participating in the Limacol Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 tournament has dropped T&T from its name and will now be known only as the Red Steel.

The decision was met with great surprise by team captain Dwayne Bravo and other players, with Bravo expressing his dissatisfaction with the change during a press conference after the opening match of the tournament in Grenada.

The request came from Sport Minister Anil Roberts. Bravo said: “When the players found out, they were really upset and they could not understand the move behind this. I am personally going to continue to use T&T Red Steel and if I get into trouble for that, I will deal with it then.”

Yesterday afternoon, the Sport Minister released a statement explaining the reason for the change. In it, he said the name T&T was reserved for citizens and nationals of the country, adding that the T&T brand was for the exclusive use of national governing bodies that are recognized by the Government and citizens as the representatives in a particular sport. He said these bodies were funded by the Ministry of Sport and the Sport Company of T&T and chose athletes based on the criteria that they are citizens of T&T.

As such, he added, the T&T brand could only be used by national teams chosen by the T&T Cricket Board. The release continued by stating that since the CPL is a private for-profit organization that builds team franchises consisting of players from around the world, it could not use T&T’s name in order to “distinguish their Red Steel franchise.”