TKR skipper Pollard wants Pooran 'refreshed' for T20 World Cup

KIERON POLLARD remains captain of Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) for the tenth edition of the Caribbean Premier League T20 tournament while new addition, West Indies T20 skipper Nicholas Pooran, will serve in other leadership roles within the squad.

Pollard wants Pooran to take a load off captaincy duties after a hectic, series-filled campaign as WI white-ball skipper over the past four months.

Pooran, who played with Guyana Amazon Warriors for the past three years, was one of three regional additions to the TKR line up for the 2022 CPL, alongside Andre Russell (Jamaica Tallawahs) and debutant Shaaron Lewis.

Pooran leads the West Indies team into ICC T20 World Cup qualification in October. Pollard believes his new TKR teammate, in addition to a few other experienced players in the team, must still serve in other critical leadership roles.

“This is the CPL. We have put together a squad where we have a lot of senior players and a lot of leaders within themselves. Pooran is the WI incumbent. He will always have a leadership role in whatever capacity.

“To me, that is not important right now as we go into a CPL. Even for the young man, the last couple months have been tough for the amount of cricket that he has played and he has a lot cricket coming up inclusive of a (T20) World Cup.

“You want him to be mentally and physically fresh so he can lead WI into the World Cup and to greater things. He always has a leadership role, as so, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Colin Munro and Ravi Rampaul, so we have a lot of senior guys with a lot of experience,” he said during Tuesday’s virtual pre-tournament media conference.

The TKR captain is looking forward to competing once more, following his recent performance at the Hundred T20 tournament in England. He was happy the TKR team were able to put in some time on the pitch at the inaugural 6ixty T10 competition.

“We’re just looking forward to the tournament. I thought it was a good headstart in terms of the 6ixty; guys getting acclimatised to conditions and stuff like that.

“Normally we’ll have a training camp but we used the 6ixty as practice so the guys could showcase what they have. We’re still missing a couple guys who will join us over the next couple days,” he added.

Pollard confirmed he is injury-free and happy TKR boasts a wealth of Caribbean and international talent.

TKR have won four CPLT20 titles, the last, when Pollard captained them on home soil in 2020. He admitted the team looks good on paper but must live up to the hype on the field, if they are to return the trophy back to the TT franchise.

“I’m well, all good, the injury I had recently is behind me. I feel fresh mentally, emotionally and stress free. We have all our bases covered, in spinning, batting order, power hitters and guys to rotate the strike; a lot of good names on paper in terms of what they have achieved.

“We’re not looking at it as if we’re the strongest team but what we can do as a team, what we can achieve on the field as individuals, inclusive of what the team requires. Hopefully with the experience of everyone we can bind together and show some sort of results when that time comes,” he said.

TKR play their first match of the campaign on Thursday, against last year’s runners-up St Lucia Kings at Warner Park in Basseterre, St Kitts from 10 am.

The CPL T20 bowls off on Wednesday at the same venue with defending champions St Kitts/Nevis Patriots hosting Jamaica Tallawahs from 7 pm. And the inaugural Women's CPL will get underway, also on Wednesday, from 3 pm with TKR facing Barbados Royals at Warner Park.

Patriots captain Dwayne Bravo is excited to lead his team for a second consecutive year, having spent all prior editions at TKR, where he won four CPLT20 titles.

The two-time ICC T20 World Cup winner is confident his team has the depth to retain the crown and called on his troops to mirror, and improve, their historic 2021 display at this year edition.

“We’re looking forward to defending our title. Not only that but playing a brand of cricket to entertain the fans and make our franchise owners and the island proud.

“It’s going to be a long and tough season but I think we have all the ingredients to have a good campaign as well. Apart from defending the title, it’s another season.

“Every season you look to play good cricket. I have a very good squad, a lot of depth with bat and ball but all the teams in CPL are always very competitive and play a good brand of cricket. Come September, once we do well, we can defend our trophy,” Bravo said.

Their international signings are Sri Lankan leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga, Afghan leg-spinner Izharulhaq Naveed, Pakistani off-spinner Qasim Akram and the South African pair of batsman Dewald Brevis and all-rounder Dwaine Pretorious.

Regional additions are Andre Fletcher (St Lucia Kings), Darren Bravo (TKR) and Leeward Islands trio Keacy Carty, Kelvin Pittman and Jaden Carmichael. Veterans Chris Gayle and Rayad Emrit were not retained by the franchise and are out of the competition.

The Patriots have retained the services of Evin Lewis, the team’s highest runscorer last year, wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva, off-spinner Jon-Russ Jagessar as well as left-arm pacers Sheldon Cottrell and Dominic Drakes.

He believes the Patriots are a well-rounded team boasting a wealth of regional and international talent.

“I’m very impressed with (Drakes') development over the last 12 to 18 months. It’s my responsibility now to make sure he doesn’t fall back, keep pushing and encouraging him. Not only him, but I want to see Rutherford (perform) again, Evin follow up from his last season.

“Young Brevis, I want to be able to try and calm him down a bit. He has so much talent but sometimes very reckless at times. I want to see my brother (Darren) get back into good form, it’s a move for him from TKR, and that change might do well for his cricket and career.”

On Pretorious, Bravo said, “He’s someone very experienced, eager to learn and has a lot of international cricket to play. It’s a good combination to have a player like him as he’s one of the better players in cricket.”

Bravo lauded coach Simon Helmot, who led Bravo to two CPL titles prior – one with TKR and the other with Patriots last year. The ex-TT player believes their coach remains a crucial asset.

“As a coach he’s very structured, well organised, speaks a lot of positive energy into the team, highlights and criticises what he needs to. After criticising, he teaches you right after what is the next best option. He’s someone the players look up to."

Meanwhile, Guyana Amazon Warriors begin their quest for a maiden CPL title. New skipper Shimron Hetmyer welcomes the challenge to lead the squad for the first time, and hopefully, to their first ever regional crown.

The Warriors have gotten to five CPLT20 finals, losing all. This year however, will be the first time the CPL knockout round and final will be staged in Guyana.

“I'm very excited. It (captaincy) is something I was really looking forward to. It's something that I could learn a lot from, in terms of managing my innings, how to look after the team and be a little bit more of a team player than just trying to basically hit sixes and fours.

“So, it's really for me to focus on how I go about doing that and how I go about setting up an innings and just being out in the crease for as long as possible and not thinking too far ahead to the World Cup,” he said.

His batting position is yet to be decided.

“It (batting position) is to be decided. It’s mainly about the balance of the team. I think it would be much easier for me to bat a little bit higher because of the fact that we have so much power down towards the end and being in a team like that you wouldn't really want to disrupt the powerplay and at the end; it's about trying to stick around as the captain and as a batter of the team and get as much as I can out of the team,” he said.