Newly appointed Guyana Amazon Warriors captain Chris Green is eager to lead his side to their maiden Caribbean Premier League (CPL) title this year.
Green enlightened the media during a virtual conference yesterday ahead of the season opener on August 18.
“We are excited to work together with a very similar if not the same group of guys with a few new players in this group and then I think it’s really exciting and I am super confident we could do Guyana proud in putting our best efforts and go back to the final and go one better this year.”
The 26-year-old touched briefly on last season where the hearts of Guyanese supporters were crushed following an 11-match winning streak, only to lose the final for the fifth time.
“I personally don’t like the guys spending too much time dwelling on the past and what could have been. We got to move forward from that now and focus on what’s to come this year,” Green stated.
“I think the competition is going to be incredibly tough, all of the teams have great roosters put together, obviously the whole tournament being in Trinidad naturally makes Trinidad have that home advantage the whole time so I think they are the forerunners but we love going through with the underdog tag,” he added.
The all-rounder confirmed his satisfaction with the squad saying “I am super excited about the team we have been able to put together. We have a very similar roster. We have been able to retain a core group that had a lot of success last year with a few little changes that I think can add spark and everyone comes with a little more experience having played a decent amount of games over the last couple of years as well.”
His confidence was vested in what he believed to be the strength of the side to rally through difficult times with inputs from every member of the side at different times compared to situations where one or two players pull a team throughout a tournament.
Green explained he will have his work cut out for him in filling the void left by Shoaib Malik in the captaincy department. He also weighed in the value of Malik to the batting department.
“Shoaib was massive for us last year, he is arguably one of the most experienced cricketers in T20 cricket with the amount of games he has played and the role he played in the middle with the bat sort of just keep us together with that experienced head to turn to for a lot of our young and up-and-coming players so he will be missed. However, he has left a good legacy from the last couple of years here in Guyana. The guys have been able to learn a lot from him, myself in particular as a leader so I know I’ve got some shoes to fill in the captaincy side of things but the guys are certainly in a great place and excited,” he said.
Green was confident newbie to the side, Ross Taylor was a competent replacement.
“We have replaced him with Ross Taylor who is just as experienced and can play a very similar role as Shoaib through the middle there with the bat in supporting some exciting young talent from all around the Caribbean and Guyana,” Green noted.
Looking at the batting on a whole, Green reflected on last season, labelling the top order’s performance as “fantastic” while wanting the side to “copy and paste” those performances this year.
“You look at Brandon King’s number he was fantastic, Chandrapaul Hemraj was fantastic, Hetty [Shimron Hetmyer] contributed at different times, Shoaib was the same and when those guys didn’t pull off, [Nicholas] Pooran or [Sherfane] Rutherford came in and even once or twice, Keemo [Paul], myself and Romario Shepherd had to take the team out of a bit of trouble and get to a respectable total and that’s what it is all about, working in partnerships, we’ve got a very deep batting order, some guys will be batting at eight or nine that could bat six in other teams so I think it’s just about not losing patience and waiting your turn but knowing that when that opportunity arises to contribute, build a partnership with the guy at the other end,” he said
Green was cognizant of the traditional spin friendly wickets in Trinidad and Tobago where the tournament is solely being played. He reckoned that all the sides have preempted this and opted for a larger spin contingent.
But for the off-spinner, he suggested that the Warriors have a lot of batsmen who play spin well and can work to their advantage.
Green chuckled, “I think the way a lot of our batsman play spin and the success they have will be an advantage to us and obviously we got some great quality spinners and our captain this year is a fantastic off-spinner from Australia.”
Green also suggested that the wickets may be suited for pacers at some points in the tournament which will play to the benefit of the Warriors.
“…I think the wickets at the start of the competition could suit pace bowling really well and towards the backend who knows. We’ve just got to wait and see with all the rain that has been predicted we have to come and assess the conditions when we get there and figure out what’s going to be best on the day,” he said.
The captain pointed out that young spinners, Kevin Sinclair and Ashmead Nedd could play important roles complementing the experience and skill of lead spinner, Imran Tahir as well as himself.
In addition to the quartet, Chandrapaul Hemraj proved his worth with a nifty left-arm spin last season while local leggie, Kissoondath Mangram has joined the side replacing Qais Ahmad.
The bowling department will also be boosted with the likes of Romario Shepherd, Paul, Jasdeep Singh, Rutherford, Odean Smith and Naveen Ul-Haq all in their arsenal.
