The 10th edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) bowls off on Wednesday in Basseterre with the defending champions, St.Kitts and Nevis Patriots, taking on the Jamaica Tallawahs in the tournament opener.
Ahead of the encounter, Tallawahs’ Chris Green revealed the preceding 6IXTY competition helped his side’s preparation leading up to the CPL.
“The 6IXTY was new to the CPL and it was a lot of fun. It was exciting. [I’ve played] a bit of T10 cricket before in the UAE and it’s very similar but even shorter than that,” he said.
“Now, with sixty balls [it is] very much suited to the local players, and we saw a lot of them stand up and do some amazing things.”
The Australian continued, “I think for the guys who got a little bit of time in the middle, hitting the ball [cleanly], it was really good for them, [a] good confidence booster. For the bowlers, it was an opportunity to try out new things. Particularly [for] when batsmen are coming hard at us. So, [we got to] practice [a] few death options, practice a few variations; because in those pressure situations, come the CPL [Wednesday], we can perhaps use some of that to our advantage.”
The former Guyana Amazon Warriors captain also spoke about the Tallawahs’ preparation leading up to the game against the Patriots. “I think our preparations are going really well. We are starting to gel as a unit. That was probably the biggest benefit of THE 6IXTY – you get to play as a team before the tournament starts. So we come into the CPL really excited about what this team can achieve and I think what’s great for the Jamaican franchise is that there are a lot of strong local players coming through which I think is exciting.”
Green is confident of filling the void left by former Tallawahs all-rounder, Andre Russell. “I certainly did not see shorten firepower [in THE 6IXTY]. We saw what Fabian Allen can do, he is in incredible form. Our captain, Rovman Powell is arguably in the best form of his career [for] the last 12-18 months, hitting the ball [cleanly]. [We have] Brandon King and then Kennar Lewis, and we saw Amir Jangoo as well. So there is still so much firepower and there’s still so much more to come.”
“[The Patriots] are obviously defending the trophy,” Green said of the first fixture of the season. “They’re a good team. [But] the way we are preparing, and going into it, with the now inclusions of Muhammad Amir and Imad Wasim coming in as well, [we’ve added] bowling maturity to our side. I think we’re in a really good place to go far in this tournament.”
Green shared what West Indian greats Shivnarine Chanderpaul (Tallawahs Head Coach) and Sir Curtly Ambrose (Tallawahs Bowling Coach) have added behind the scenes.
“It’s very special. We’ve got two absolute legends on our coaching staff with Shiv and then Sir Curtly. As a kid, you hear stories and you watch games of these guys dominating world cricket. And just the insights [Chanderpaul] has on the game. We all watched him do what he does in [the] longer format of the game but T20 cricket is still cricket. He talks about watching the ball, the importance of finding the gaps, timing, and setting a solid base. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re trying to hit the ball for six or hit it for one, the fundamentals of the game, I certainly believe, are the same. And that’s what [they] bring.”
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