By Akeem Greene
Last season, Guyana Amazon Warriors produced a record run in the Hero Caribbean Premier League, winning 11 matches on the trot before losing the championship game to Barbados Tridents.
Captain Chris Green said the pain of not winning the title after such a splendid season is a huge motivator this year.
That motivation comes from the fact that the core of last season’s squad returns with the only noticeable absentee being skipper Shoaib Malik. Speaking on Friday, Green said it is something they reflect about and strive to do better this year.
“Last year, when we were there after the game it certainly hurt when we were outplayed in the final. A couple of things didn’t go our way with injuries and illness, but that is no excuse. Barbados turned up and play a better game,” he expressed in a Virtual briefing.
“We learnt a lot from that loss and we learnt a lot from our success as well; to go through and win 11 games in a row is an amazing feat and we would have loved to put the icing on the cake and bring that trophy home, but it has left us desiring more and using that pain as a little bit of motivation.”
“I am super confident we can do Guyana proud and put our best efforts in getting back to the final and go one better this year.”
In June, the off-spinner was cleared to resume bowling after his action was found legal. He was suspended from bowling in all Cricket Australia competitions for three months in January.
According to Green, he is confident again in his action and ready to perform.
“I am feeling great. I have had a long break than anyone else; I have been training since January 3…and in the last two months in Sydney, I have spent a lot of time batting and bowling on outdoor wickets and arguably I am in my best possible physical shape and I am just excited about getting back on the park.”
The lack of fans will be a loss, according to Green, but he said they will have to find mechanisms to cope.
“One of the factors we will miss this year is certainly playing in front of our fans in Guyana, that has been massive; the support we from Guyana and throughout the Caribbean certainly means so much to the players.”
“It certainly will be a different tournament and we know we got our fans watching and we still want to put on a show for them and we got to create that buzz for ourselves and continue to have fun.”
Green said there might be some rust from the players at the start, but he expects them to quickly slide back into normalcy given they have been training harder off the field.
The skipper also said he looks forward to seeing Emerging players Kevin Sinclair and Ashmead Nedd in action. CPL rules dictate each franchise must field the emerging players for a minimum of five matches.
Warriors face archrivals Trinbago Knight Riders in the tournament’s opening match on August 18 from 10:00h at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy.
