It was not played to a full house nor was it the most auspicious of starts. The newly formed Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR), recast from Red Steel, the defending champions, lost its first match against a St Lucia Zouks side led by West Indies T20 World Cup winning captain Darren Sammy, and marshalled well by the brilliant but sometimes erratic Johnson Charles.
Not even the bursts of Dwayne Bravo's ubiquitous and addictive Champion, orchestrated by the singer and Knight Riders captain himself, could sufficiently stir the local side. Not even a stylish half century by the other Bravo, his brother Darren, was enough. Zouks eased home by six wickets in the last over, but although these T20 margins can be deceptive–it was a comfortable win for the team from St Lucia.
The Knight Riders is the most star-studded team, on and off the field, in the Caribbean Premier League. Dwayne Bravo, singer and cricketer with varying degrees of accomplishment, isn't the only one bringing star quality to the region's most celebrated franchise. Like its cousin franchise the Kolkata Knight Riders, it is owned by Bollywood megastars Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla, and fronted by CEO Venky Mysore.
Jacques Kallis glories on the job title of Chief Mentor, something between a coach and motivational figure. They should not be lacking in that ingredient, counting among their players Brendon McCullum, who signed off from test cricket in February with the fastest hundred in history, in 54 balls. Not even Viv Richards scored as quickly. Hashim Amla, South Africa's bearded wonder, is ranked the third best batsman in the world in tests and ODIs.
The mighty Sunil Narine, who plays for the other Knight Riders franchise in Kolkata, has been prised away from the Guyana Amazon Warriors. Seemingly over his bowling action trials, he had a good game, picking up two wickets and as usual being hard to score off of. Ramnaresh Sarwan, the former Guyana and West Indies captain has been added to the Trinbago squad, but such is their strength he might not get a game.
On paper, the Knight Riders are head of the class in CPL. However as the Zouks showed and as Venky Mysore himself said at the media launch at the Hilton Trinidad & Conference Centre on Tuesday, "the game is not played on paper." The TKR have got to turn their potential strength into real wins, starting tonight against the Barbados Tridents, who are led by Kieron Pollard.
Bravo doesn't sound too worried at the prospect. "We thought we had a chance to defend the target (of 162)", he said.
"Charles batted well in the company of Fletcher, and then Miller and Hussey. At this time, it is a rainy season, so most of the games will have dew. It is the first game, we just need to get better with our skills."
But never mind, T20 cricket is back at the Queens Park Oval, and so, we expect, there will be the colourful crowds this weekend. The T&T cricketing public, starved of high-quality cricket since the venue lost its pulling power for test and One Day International matches, turned out in great numbers last year. Opportunities are fewer and limited this year. After today, there are just two more matches at the Oval before the caravan goes north for the remainder of the tournament. Let's send the Knight Riders off in style.