Faf du Plessis will relish the captaincy: Lendl Simmons

The West Indies batsman Lendl Simmons said that his team St. Kitts & Nevis Patriots will have a better impact in this year’s Caribbean Premier League (CPL) with the presence of experienced campaigners like Faf du Plessis, the current T20I skipper of South Africa and Brad Hodge.

Simmons has been suffering from an injury from the World T20 earlier this year, and he feels that he is getting better. “Physically I feel as though my back is getting stronger each day and I can’t wait to get back playing because it can be frustrating watching on from the sidelines. But I have stepped up my rehab recently and I’m looking forward to getting 100 percent fit,” he said.

“We have a good, well-balanced team this year and there’s a lot of experienced and promising players on paper. But it’s about how we perform and I think we can lean on the experience of the likes of Faf (du Plessis) and Brad Hodge, who have played a lot of T20 cricket, to bring the squad together and create a strong environment,” the 31-year old added.

Speaking exclusively to cplt20.com, Simmons said, “The CPL is a special tournament, one of the best franchise competitions in world cricket, and I think this is going to be even better this year.” His team will play the opening game against his former team on Thursday, 30 June in mainland USA to attract international talent to the Caribbean.

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He believes that Faf’s experience in leading the national side will be a great advantage in leading the side in CPL. He also expressed his happiness in the Under-19 players getting more chances this year and pointed that Alzarri Joseph would relish this opportunity.

“Faf is an outstanding player, a world-class talent who will relish the captaincy this year. What I like about Faf is that he reads the game well and bats intelligently according to each situation. There’s a lot of responsibility attached to being captain because we have a passionate St. Kitts & Nevis public who will want to see the team progress. But he’ll be used to that having led the Proteas at international level. It’s great to see the West Indies Under-19 players get more of a chance this year and I’m sure Alzarri Joseph will relish the chance to compete for a place and learn off the senior players in our squad. With young players, you have to be patient and allow them the chance to make mistakes because that’s the way we all learned when we were trying to establish ourselves. I’m sure he’ll be excited to take his chance and impress.”

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“The onus will be on all of us as a collective to add to that mix, myself included. We know that if we can put our heads together and play some attacking and smart cricket from the off, we can create problems for the other teams.”

Simmons played a match-winning 82 in the World T20 2016 semi-final against India which took them into the finals of the tournament which they trumped. “To win the World T20 was a huge accomplishment and a very proud moment for me to be a part of. It’s something I’ll cherish for the rest of my life. “You could say that the semi (final) was my day. And the final was Carlos Brathwaite’s! But I think the big thing about the West Indies was that we weren’t overly reliant on any one player. Every single player contributed throughout the tournament and it was a dream come true,” he concluded.