However, this weekend the cricketers might be a little distracted as they will be looking towards the heavens as the rains sweeping through the Eastern Caribbean is expected to arrive in St Lucia on Sunday. A quick glance at the weather forecast reveals that rain is expected the temperatures are expected to drop to 26 degrees in the evening.
Red Steel will be hoping to continue their impressive record against the Zouks and open with a win. Yesterday the players enjoyed a good workout and would have gotten a major boost as the legendary South African Jacques Kallis arrived at around 3pm at the Bay Gardens Hotel at Rodney Bay.
“We met and welcomed Jacques Kallis to the Red Steel family, and he immediately felt at home. Kallis in addition to Johan Botha, Kamran Akmal and Cameron Delport are expected to play a major part in this effort.
“The Red Steel is very focused and looking to win the tournament this time around. We have had two attempts and failed and there are no excuses. It is high time that we win this title.”
Red Steel has failed to reach the finals on two occasions thus far, being knocked out by Guyana Amazon Warriors in the first edition and then by the Jamaica Tallawahs last year. Borde thinks that the efforts over the last two years will assist in taking the team to a further step.
“We have the core group of players from the first tournament and they come into the third tournament with the lessons learnt from their previous attempts. We have professionals in our ranks, they know where they went wrong, they have knowledge of the players from the opposing team and they know what has to be done to make this team a champion one.”
Captain Dwayne Bravo at the press conference yesterday said his team is ready for action and ready to continue the dominance over St. Lucia Zouks, who are yet to defeat the Red Steel. “We have been working hard leading up to this tournament and we will be looking to continue the dominance against the home team.”
Bravo said he was happy to be leading this bunch of cricketers in this tournament and looking forward to getting the best out of his boys. “It’s a joy for me. It’s not quite being the captain for the country but at the same time it’s the team based in my native Island, and I look forward to leading a bunch of talented young guys, with some experience as well. I love Trinidad and Tobago, for me to be captain in a tournament which is so big - the CPL is the biggest party in sport.
