Despite winning the ‘best celebration award,’ Kevin Sinclair says that the invaluable experience he gained throughout the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) was the bigger prize.
Stabroek Sport caught up with the 20-year-old Guyana Amazon Warriors’ all-rounder and chatted about his experience at the ‘Biggest Party in Sport,’ following the tournament’s conclusion.
He summarized the six-week stint as “a learning experience,” indicating that “For me basically, I’ve taken away a lot, it was a learning experience for me because as a youngster you would want to pick most of the guys’ brains and learn as much as you can.”
Sinclair pointed out that his summersault celebration that earned him the award was instrumental in breaking the ice and providing an avenue for discussions with the players as he never envisioned that he would be able to be among players of this calibre and took in as much as he could.
“For any youngster out there this opportunity is great. For me, I never thought I never thought I would be talking to a [Pravin] Tambe at breakfast or a Ross Taylor or a Chris Green or a Sunil Narine or [Lendl] Simmons,” he declared.
The Angoy’s Avenue, Berbice native, was particularly impressed with the attitude of everyone in the tournament, adding “It’s not all about you coming against me or I coming against you, all the guys were open, all the international players were open to anyone. I should say that was a big learning curve for me and I was open enough to gain a lot from it.”
Sinclair namedropped the two coaches in Johan Botha and Rayon Griffith as well as the captain Green, for their invaluable knowledge and advice.
“Basically I worked closely with the coaches, Griffith and coach Botha and even the captain because the coach and captain both bowl off-spin and they shared little tips to me and they didn’t want me to change that much, just work on key areas to make my bowling better so I would say I would say the coaching staff and captain and even Imran Tahir although he bowls leg spin he was very instrumental in giving me that kind of encouragement that I need,” he revealed.
A right-handed batsman, Sinclair admitted that it was not the start he wanted with the bat as he managed only nine runs in three innings but took it as experience.
“It didn’t happen the way I wanted and the management staff wasn’t too hard on me. It was a really good opportunity, I didn’t make use fully of it but it was a real good exposure to face the likes of Sohail Tanvir and the others,” he said.
“CPL in the whole is known for a lot of international and local bowlers who have a good reputation so I would say it was really different because it was not like playing at home where you know all the bowlers and their strengths and weaknesses,” he added.
However, he was pleased with his bowling performance that saw him taking five wickets at an economy rate of 4.35.
The off-spinner expressed his gratitude to be given the chance to play in the tournament and reflected on his ambitions to play having observed from the outside. “It’s a great feeling, like I said in the past interview I am grateful for the opportunity in the Guyana Amazon Warriors franchise, I’ve always wanted to be a part of it because having looked at the game from the outside and how it is played and the crowd support and things like that made me as a young cricketer just back myself, train hard and put in the work,” he said.
