Today's Edition
Kuumar Shyam (Abu Dhabi)
Abu Dhabi T10 holders Deccan Gladiators will be aiming to become the first team to grab a hat-trick of titles when it gets underway from Tuesday, and captain Nicholas Pooran was calmly confident his team can deliver the goods "over the next 12 days".
Pooran was flanked on the pre-event press conference dias with other captains as seven out of eight franchises were represented at the Zayed Cricket Stadium, the venue for the tournament in its seventh year. Pooran led by example to power Gladiators into the play-offs as the fourth and last team last year before the team managed to go all the way.
But the modest captain said: "It was a team effort with the coach and support staff getting the strategy together. We just go out there and perform, and also have fun. If we do that, a third title is surely possible."
Some teams have changed leadership, though last season runners-up New York Strikers and Morrisville Samp Army, with American-based owners, will continue with veteran allrounders Kieron Pollard and Moeen Ali as captains, respectively.
Pooran, who was also the highest run-scorer of the last season with 345 runs in 10 matches at an average of 49.29 and a strike rate of 234.69. "At the end of the day, the best team who can execute the skills on any given day will be successful," Pooran added.
Sikandar Raza handed over the reins for Chennai Braves to Charith Asalanka, whilst Northern Warriors named Angelo Mathews as captain, and Delhi Bulls will have first-time captain Rovman Powell.
Local favourites Team Abu Dhabi picked Dwaine Pretorius to lead the side whilst Bangla Tigers made a surprise pick in Benny Howell, who was absent for the day. The presence of Mathews attracted the most attention, while deflecting the fact that Northern Warriors are also in contention for the hat-trick of titles sub-plot.
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Mathews became the first batsman in one-day cricket to be timed out as he tried to address his helmet's broken strap coming into bat against Bangladesh at the recently concluded 50-over Cricket World Cup.
While reiterating the incident as "unfortunate", many questions swivelled on players adapting from 50-over to the shortest format not many years since Twenty20 once filled that space. Beginning with Mathews seeing the challenges as a bowling all-rounder, the veteran Sri Lankan said: "I will not be surprised if we also see a five-over format eventually. I am amazed how small children flay the shots nowadays, it's unreal. The guys are trying to score more runs from ball one. That fear factor is no more, so I feel sorry for the bowlers, including myself, because the wickets are good for them. We bowlers have to develop our skills constantly to be a step ahead of the batters. So I think it has impacted in a in a very good way."
Pollard said: "It's so quick and it's so fast. We do have time to think about conditions and all these things. It's a matter of trying to be the best skilled team on the day, and they see whatever happens at the end. So for myself, I wouldn't even be looking into the conditions. What's the priority? Play the toss, make a decision and see what happens at the end."
Moeen Ali saw the flip side while agreeing there is not much time to think and settle in. "One tight over [in T10] and you can lose the game for the team. But if you do well, it gives you that confidence that you can turn around a game quickly so when you play in T20 or ODIs, the thinking changes in that you have confidence that you can turn it around when you want."
