Former West Indies captain Kieron Pollard says the red card handed out to Trinbago Knight Riders spinner Sunil Narine was “absolutely ridiculous”.

Due to a slow over-rate, Trinbago only had 10 players on the pitch for the last over of their bowling innings against St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots on Sunday. Only two of those players were outside the 30-yard circle.

As part of its new plans to speed up slow over-rates, the CPL has added the red card rule.

Pollard had to put an extra fielder inside the ring for the 18th over, and then in the next-to-last over, another fielder had to come in from the boundary, leaving only three players in the outfield.

As the last over began, his team was still behind the required rate, and Sunil Narine, who spins the ball, had to leave the pitch.

“To be honest, it will take away the hard work everyone has done,” Pollard said.

“We are like the pawns and we are going to do what we are told.

“We are going to play as fast as we can. If you are penalised for 30-45 seconds in a tournament like this, it is absolutely ridiculous.”

Even though Trinbago’s Dwayne Bravo lost 18 runs in the last over of the Patriots’ innings, it wasn’t a big deal.

With 17 balls left, Pollard, Nicholas Pooran, and Andre Russell easily reached their goal of 179 runs.