Dwayne “DJ” Bravo, the West Indies cricket super star all-rounder turned master tactician, has thrown down the challenge to the cricket fans in Barbados to come out, enjoy what the game has to offer and fill Kensington Oval for tonight’s mega-clash in the Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
This message came as Bravo and his Trinbago Knight Riders flew into the island to lock horns with the Barbados Tridents in what promises to be one of the biggest clashes of the season.
The flamboyant Bravo, who is one of the game’s most visible ambassadors and a TKR title winning-player and head coach, believes the atmosphere in the stands should be electrifying and turn the “biggest party in sports” into a magnificent spectacle worth watching all around the world.
The 42-year-old is a two-time ICC T20 World Cup champion in 2012 and 2016.
He is also one of the most successful T20 players in the world and has won the cash-rich Indian Premier League and the Big Bash League in Australia on multiple occasions.
He spoke to Saturday Sport in a wide-ranging interview yesterday afternoon at the 3Ws Oval at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), as the players enjoyed an intense net session.
Asked specifically what he would like to see at the Oval, Bravo gave a quite surprising response for a visiting coach. The organisers have suggested that ticket sales have been encouraging and a near capacity crowd is expected for the night-time encounter. “I would like to see the people come out. The Bajan crowd is one of the most educated where cricket is concerned, and they fully enjoy their cricket. They will get a chance to see the most successful franchise in the history of the CPL play, and some of the best players in the world among some of the best players in the opposition. It will be a good game. The weather will be good, so I want to urge them to come out in their numbers,” Bravo said. “Now we have the last two preliminary games, and we will take it one game at a time. You have Trinidad and Tobago versus Barbados and whether it’s CPL, or any other kind of cricket – four-day or one-day; whether it’s football, netball, any kind of sporting event, it will be a very big event.”
In this year’s CPL, the failures of the Trinidadians have become the biggest talking point in sports.
They have won the title on five occasions in the previous 13 seasons of the competition and Bravo played a pivotal role on most of those triumphs.
This year, they have been underwhelming with six defeats in eight matches to sit sixth in the seventeam table with four points, the same as Barbados Tridents who have played five matches on the road.
They had only one win in their home matches at the Queen’s Park Oval – against the Barbados Tridents.
Bravo stayed away from a full post-mortem, but acknowledged they have been well below their best in the defence of their title.
Their next match will be against run-away leaders the Guyana Amazon Warriors at the National Stadium in Georgetown.
“It has been that kind of a season. My message to the team for tomorrow (today) and not just tomorrow but for all throughout the season, has been that every time you get an opportunity to play a cricket game, you first try to win and give your 100 percent,” Bravo said.
“That will be the message again. Yes, if we win, we get another chance to add two more points to our tally, which gives us a slight chance (of making the playoffs). But, again, we trust our process and string a couple wins in the last few games. It is a season where consistency was lacking and once you play that kind of cricket you will struggle to win games consistently,” Bravo stated in a measured manner. (PS)
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