I see it as a challenge and I relish challenges – Shimron Hetmyer on playing for GAW in CPL

Guyana Amazon Warriors have come to the knockouts of each of the nine seasons of the CPL so far however have never brought home the championship but, Shimron Hetmyer, Amazon Warriors’ new skipper, is letting no part of that cloud his mind.

Guyana Amazon Warriors have come to the knockouts of each of the nine seasons of the CPL so far however have never brought home the championship. This season, they get an opportunity to break that curse and clinch their first trophy, in front of their home crowd. 

The possibility of Guyana hosting the CPL final interestingly has raised the assumptions for the fans. The competition is played only one month out from the following T20 World Cup has raised the danger for the players. 

But, Shimron Hetmyer, Amazon Warriors’ new skipper, is letting no part of that cloud his mind.

“I see it as a challenge and I relish challenges,”

Hetmyer said during a virtual media interaction.

“Want to perform and do the best for my team because I know once I do half of my best or even my best, we will get there to a decent score more times than not. So, it’s really for me to focus on how I go about doing that and how I go about setting up an innings and just being out in the crease for as long as possible and not thinking too far ahead to the World Cup.

“I’m very excited, it [captaincy] is something I was looking forward to, to be honest. It’s something that I could learn a lot from, in terms of managing my innings, how to look after the team, and being a little bit more of a team player than just trying to hit sixes and fours. I’m trying to do as much as I can in terms of being the captain and trying to help out as much as I can and just being there for the team.”

This will be Hetmyer’s first taste of captaincy in the CPL, he takes over from Nicholas Pooran who has gotten back to his home franchise Trinbago Knight Riders but he isn’t new to positions of leadership. In 2016, Hetmyer captained West Indies to the Under-19 World Cup title in Bangladesh.

“It [Under-19 captaincy experience] will help quite a lot; 2016 was quite a while [ago],”

Hetmyer said.

“But I guess from then it has helped me in some way because now I know I’d have done it before and just need to tap into that knowledge to find a way to get stuff done and to find a way to cross the line more times than not.”

“There’s a lot of guys there that are experienced and it helps in terms of field placement, see where the guys are and move them into specific angles and stuff like that.

“There’s also Keemo [Paul] who is a friend of mine who helps me as well. [Romario] Shepherd, Colin [Ingram]. Basically, the entire team will come over to me and lend some advice in terms of what they’re thinking and even the bowlers will come and try to pick my brain, in terms of what I would want them to do, which is nice. It’s always good to know that there are guys you could always go to and find out what they’re thinking and then they could help you in terms of field setting and who is the bowler at the specific time to make sure that everything goes smoothly.”

“It [batting position] is to be decided, to be honest. It’s mainly about the balance of the team,”

Hetmyer said.

“In this team, I think it would be much easier for me to bat a little bit higher because we have so much power down towards the end, and being in a team like that you wouldn’t want to disrupt the powerplay and at the end; it’s about trying to stick around as the captain and as a batter of the team and get as much as I can out of the team.”

“I think injuries would’ve done quite a lot,”

he said.

“They would’ve gotten injured during the West Indies series against India – both of them got injured. But, as it is, the physio is doing a wonderful job taking care of [players] and managing the workload and stuff. So, I think coming into the CPL they would be much better and much stronger.”