From left: Barbados Tridents Coach Vaspert Drakes, Trident’s Raymond Reifer, Team Manager Jason Harper, Trident’s David Wiese and Pete Russell, Chief Operations Officer of the CPL.
Tridents confident
Sat, 06/25/2016 - 12:00am
The Barbados Tridents are confident in their chances this year to reclaim the Caribbean Premier League T20 Championship. The tournament will take place in seven different countries including Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, St. Kitts & Nevis, Guyana, St. Lucia, Jamaica and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Speaking at the media conference at the Radisson Aquatica Resort Barbados, Team Manager Jason Harper said that it was the focus of the team to take the top spot as it would be fitting for Barbados’ 50th year of independence celebrations. Harper eluded to the quality of players which the Trident have this year. Coach Vaspert Drakes also spoke about being satisfied with the team and believed the team could win the trophy as the Tridents has been the most consistent team over the last three years of the tournament.
Local player Raymond Reifer and international player David Wiese from South Africa were on hand to speak about the tournament from the player’s perspective. Reifer said that it was indeed an honour to be part of the team and that the CPL experience was a different one than he was accustomed to but as a professional cricketer, one must learn to adapt quickly to the environment. Wiese who has played for the Tridents before for a short stint at the end of the last season in Guyana.
He said that he was looking forward to seeing more of the islands and participating in the culture and seeing the beaches. He also expressed his excitement to play at the iconic Kensington Oval on July 11th when the home games begin and was eagerly awaiting the start of the competition.
The Tridents have four home matches in which the expectation according to Harper, is for Kensington to be sold out. Pete Russell, the Chief Operations Officer of the CPL was on hand to answer any questions raised by the media. When asked about the comparison of the CPL to the other T20 tournaments around the world including the Indian Premier League and the Big Bash Tournament, Russell said that the CPL was on par. He was excited about the growth of the CPL over the last three years and believed that it had drawn a good mix of the top international players and had even surpassed the popularity of the Big Bash Tournament. He also drew reference to the over 300,000 fans who attended the games and that it spoke volumes about the love for the game in the Caribbean.
At the end of the press conference, Harper and the management of the Tridents debuted the theme song for the team and also a remix to the national anthem in the form of a video. The team had worked with Virgo Communications to come up with both productions and believed that it would do justice to the motto of the Tridents “Pride of Barbados”. (AS)