GUYANA Amazon Warriors all-rounder Kevin Sinclair praised his teammates and coach for playing an enormous role in his exceptional Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) season, adding that the experience gained will be essential for his career going forward.

Sinclair, the man with arguably the best celebration in CPL, during an exclusive with Chronicle Sport yesterday, was in high spirits following his return home from the ‘bubble’ after a successful stint with the Warriors; who despite being knocked out in the semis, played like their moniker states.

Playing just 5 games before being entrusted with some responsibility during the crunch stages of the tournament, the 20-year-old Guyana Jaguars player returned 1-9, 1-6, 2-13, 1-16 and 1-23 ending with 5 wickets. Sinclair was used as a makeshift opener for a few games but found more success in the department in which he has been excelling lately.

With a number of talented players, local, regional and international in the side, the dynamic all-rounder praised his teammates for their support and confidence in him, something he said played a huge role in his accomplishments this season.

“Basically, I learnt a lot from coach (Johan) Botha, our captain Chris Green and Imran Tahir. I also learnt some batting tips from Ross Taylor and I even had chats during breakfast at times with Pravin Tambe (KKR spinner). So I learnt a lot this year and now I just have to add that to my game going forward.” said Sinclair.

Not shying away from the fact that more could have been done in both departments, the Berbician, who ended as the Warriors bowler with the best economy rate (4.35) and average (12.20) of the tournament, admitted that the experience gained recently will help to unlock other dimensions to his cricket in the future.

“There’s always room for improvement in cricket because I never really liked settling in terms of how my batting and bowling go. You don’t want to be the same cricketer every year so I think it was important to add to my game. I had a lot of positives coming out of the tournament because they didn’t know me that well”.

He continued, “When I started to perform they (my team) realised that I had some talent and potential and they didn’t try to change anything about my game; they just gave me some advice on stuff like working on my variations and so on which was great,” pointed out the right-arm spinner.

Despite a late start to the season, Sinclair who was a part of the history-making West Indies Emerging Players (WIEP), who won the 2020 Regional Super50, explained that it was his hunger to get back on the field after months away due to the pandemic, coupled with his desire to prove his worth as a key player in the franchise; which led to his making the most of his chances in the middle.

“I started a bit late, but I was hungry for success or should I say I was waiting on my opportunity to make the best out of it and I did that. I must say it was pretty enjoyable to be playing around those senior guys as well as the international stars”.

Wrapping up his interview, Sinclair who had big scalps like Mitchell Santner, Shai Hope, Andre Fletcher, Johnson Charles and Evin Lewis to name a few in his collection this season, noted that it was the overall support from his team and self-confidence in his ability which allowed him to overcome his biggest challenges this year.

“My biggest challenge was to contain batsmen, I mean contain, as in ‘don’t look to go for too many boundaries’. I had the guys backing me all the way, I myself was very confident in my abilities so that was my biggest challenge of the tournament and I did it absolutely right.” Sinclair ended.