… Guyana Amazon Warriors youth and experience can triumph

By Neil Kumar

THE 9th Edition of the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) blasts off on Thursday, with the fully pumped up Guyana Amazon Warriors (GAW) playing against the defending champions Trinbago Knight Ridders.
Fire power Nicholas Pooran, Shmiron Hetmyer, Brandon King and Chandrapaul Hemraj are all capable of destroying any bowling attack in this year’s competition.
GAW will also benefit from and relish the inclusion of the experienced veterans Shoaib Malik and Mohammed Hafeez in the team. However, it is the batting, /bowling all-rounders who will add the real strength and depth to the batting. Romario Shepherd, Kevin Sinclair and Ashmead Nedd are all capable of batting in the lower-order.
The leadership of GAW should not allow the four champion batters to bat in a cluster. They should play a ‘high-bred’ tactics and bring up a ‘pinch’ hitter to bat early in the innings, while the strong batsmen could consolidate in the middle in the event of the team losing early wickets.

The bowling also looks very strong and is surely capable of restricting a good batting line-up. The spinners will enjoy the inclusion of Imran Tahir, Kevin Sinclair, Ashmead Nedd and Gudakesh Motie along with experienced Malik and Hafeez. The quickie Shepherd, along with both Smith and Naveen-ul-Haq, is capable of bowling a good line and length. The Warriors seem to be a balance team and with the experienced players they are expected to give a good account of themselves.
It is time that the cricketing world concentrate heavily on discipline and fitness; and with magnificent fielding we should see man-of-the-match coming with players whose outstanding fielding will help their team to win matches. There must be no room for indiscipline, and poor fielding. Trinbago Knight Riders certainly look very strong on paper.  Skipper Kieron Pollard is the West Indies captain and he could win a match on his day. The batting is strong with overseas player Colin Munro in very good form at present. Lendal Simmons, Darren Bravo and Denesh Ramdin are the real strength of the team’s batting.

However, they will depend heavily on their bowling strength. Fast bowler Jayden Seales will be their trump card, while their bowling attack will depend heavily on their spinners. Overseas player Yasir Shah is not in form and the Trinbago Knight Riders will depend heavily on the veteran Sunil Narine along with Akeal Hosein and Khary Pierre. It will be interesting to see how they will fit in with their four overseas players.
This year CPL will see the six teams Barbados Royals, Guyana Amazon Warriors, Jamaica Tallawhas, St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots, Saint Lucia Kings and Trinbago Knight Riders compete over 21 days. There will be double-headers and triple-headers.
During the play-offs each team will play against each other twice and the four top teams will face-off in the semifinals. The finals will be keenly contested by the two teams that play better cricket during the tournament.