Fast-bowler Ronsford Beaton says he is looking to play a significant role for the Trinbago Knight Riders 2016 Hero Caribbean Premier League (HCPL) T20 title defence when the fourth edition the tournament bowls off.
The Montserrat-born Guyanese, during an interview with Stabroek Sport Sunday, was seemingly excited about his upcoming stint with the defending Champs. Beaton said that he was relishing the fact that he is the lone pacer in the team which means more opportunities to showcase his skillset in the shortest format against some of the best T20 batsmen in cricket.
Although this will be the first year Beaton will not put on a Guyana Amazon Warriors uniform, the 23-year-old said that he was thankful for the chance to play in different conditions and against different players. “It’s the first time that I’ll be away from the Warriors. It will be a different environment, different management, different everything so I’m just looking to adapt as quickly as possible.
“I won’t say I’m disappointed not playing for Guyana this year but in life everything happens for a reason and I think going to Trinidad is a good thing for me. They have a lot of experienced players, so me going there will be a boost for showcasing my talent and in the Trinidad team I’m the only fast-bowler so I’ll be looking to get experience from the senior guys. So I won’t say I’m disappointed I’m excited to go there so I can develop my game,” he explained.
“As I said before, Trinidad has a good team, they won CPL last year so I’m hoping to go with the experience that I have to see if I can lend any assistance if or when called upon. I’ll just be looking to work hard and possibly see if I can help Trinidad retain their title and do well because we have a lot of big names in our team.
“I’m looking to grab as much experience from them which will further help my game”, said the former West Indies Under-19 player who over the previous seasons of CPL, has been the mainstay of the Guyana Warriors fast-bowling department, winning pressure matches for his team who managed to reach the finals twice.
His 25 T20 wickets from 23 matches at an average of 27.12, with 4-9 his best match figures makes him one of the ranked bowlers in the Region and with a healthy T20 career to date, the West Indies A speedster said he will be looking to step up his game come HCPL 2016 adding that he believes that his role as the front-line pacer for the Trinbago Knight Riders will indeed present huge opportunities for his career once he executes well.
Also with the world class players the likes of Hashim Amla, Brendon Mc Cullum and a few others in his camp, Beaton believes there is much to learn as a fast-bowler from the International batsmen. “We see in the World Cup Dwayne Bravo doing very good with the ball, so I’m looking to take a page out of his book with the slower ball especially. We have Test batsmen who have records in the team like McCullum and Amla so those guys will know a lot of fast-bowling despite them not being fast-bowlers”.
The ex-Guyana U19 quick bowler also took some time out to congratulate the national side, the Guyana Jaguars, who he said proved that they are indeed the best 4-day team in the Caribbean. Despite not featuring in the final match against Jamaica, the right-arm seamer ended with 17 wickets from his seven matches but credited the work of his teammates who were exceptional this season.
“Winning back-to-back tournaments is not easy. We’ve been putting out the work as a team so I would say right now the Jaguars are the best Regional 4-day team. I’m not saying that because I’m a Jaguar but the stats show. We have the batsman with the most runs (Leon Johnson), we have the wicket-keeper with the most dismissals (Anthony Bramble) and our bowlers finished among those with the most wickets.
“We also have a young talented player coming in the team this year in Gudakesh Motie and he’s among the wickets and that shows we have a lot of character so I would that we are the best Regional 4-day side,” he ended.
