By JELANI BECKLES
Kevon Cooper is excited that his Trinidad and Tobago and Queen’s Park teammate Sunil Narine will be plying his trade this season for the Trinbago Knight Riders in the upcoming Caribbean Premier League T20 tournament and knows the fans will welcome him with open arms.
Narine, who has played for the Guyana Amazon Warriors since the tournament began in 2013, is among many new players signed on to play with the local franchise this season which includes South African Hashim Amla and Brendon McCullum from New Zealand.
Speaking to the media at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain, yesterday, Cooper said, “It is always good to have Sunil back. He is one of the most dangerous bowlers in the world. It will be his first time playing for TT and we know the home fans will welcome him back home.
He is now back on the international stage and hopefully the form he had in the IPL (Indian Premier League) he could bring it back to us.” Cooper said Amla and McCullum will bring more quality to the team.
“Amla and McCullum are two of the best batsmen in international cricket. We know what McCullum can do, we see him in the IPL and we see Amla playing in the series against the West Indies right now.
I think these guys playing for us is good for West Indies cricket on a whole to share their experience with us. Hopefully they can add something special to our team.” The medium pacer said making a return to the IPL is also in his plans.
“I think every player’s dream is to play at the highest level. Although I missed out on the IPL last year I am not giving up. I just want to continue working hard and contributing to my team in any way I could.” Cooper is optimistic about the Knight Riders defending the title, saying that team chemistry led to the team’s success in 2015. He said the team stuck together as a family and played good cricket and everybody was willing to work for each other.
