The Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) continued their dominance in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) as the franchise last week claimed their fourth CPL 2020 title by defeating the St Lucia Zouks by eight wickets in a thrilling final on Thursday (September 10).
Following a CPL record triumph, Zimbabwe and TKR all-rounder Sikandar Raza revealed that their head coach Brendon McCullum inspired the franchise through a Netflix series “The Last Dance” on their way to a perfect 2020 season of the Hero CPL, as they remained unbeaten and scripted 12 victories.
As per ESPNCricinfo, Raza stated: “It started with one game at a time. We won the first one. We put our focus on the second one. McCullum challenged all of us. He wanted to create a dynasty out of this TKR team by telling us that this team has a lot in common with Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls.”
Raza further revealed that McCullum challenged all the players showing clips of “The Last Dance”, which focuses on how Michael Jordon inspired the Chicago Bulls to command the NBA, which played a key role in TKR’s fourth title triumph in the tournament.
The pacer further added, “He showed us clips of the Last Dance. He wanted to challenge us to write some sort of history, something that hasn't been achieved before. The idea came from Baz. We all bought into this. One game led to another, and another, and we won twelve out of twelve.”
He also hailed the TKR as one of the best teams in T20 franchise competitions across the world. Raza added, “Among all the T20 sides I have been part of, I would most certainly rate this TKR side as the best one going around. It was exciting hitting the nets with Polly and Bravo. These guys will just tee off. I will even add Sunny [Narine] Bhai, Lendl, and Darren Bravo. These guys hit a long ball as well.”
Raza also credited McCullum for defining a clear role for him. He signed off by saying, “It was important to have that chat with Baz, to basically have an understanding of my role, what's expected and train accordingly. Once you have these chats and the role is clear, then training becomes a lot clearer.”
