Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers will launch the de­fence of their Caribbean Pre­mier League ti­tle be­fore their home crowd at the Queen's Park Oval in just over two weeks time, and team di­rec­tor Venky Mysore be­lieves this will set the tone for their cam­paign.

Last year, the lo­cal fran­chise– then known as Trinidad and To­ba­go Red Steel–trounced de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons Bar­ba­dos Tri­dents by 20 runs in the fi­nal at Queen's Park Oval here to claim their first-ever CPL crown.Mysore said the venue, along with the home fans, would make the open­ing leg here mem­o­rable.

"It feels ex­tra spe­cial to start our de­fence of the ti­tle at our home ground," he said.

"The pas­sion of T&T fans is un­match­able and I am sure that the team will en­joy the sup­port and per­form to their best in front of their home crowd."

Knight Rid­ers will open their cam­paign against the Dar­ren Sam­my-led St Lu­cia Zouks on the open­ing day of the tour­na­ment on June 29, and fol­low up with a re­peat of last year's fi­nal on Ju­ly 1.

The fol­low­ing day, they do bat­tle with Guyana Ama­zon War­riors be­fore wrap­ping up against 2013 cham­pi­ons Ja­maica Tallawahs on Ju­ly 4.

This year, Knight Rid­ers will fea­ture cham­pi­on off-spin­ner Sunil Nar­ine who has crossed over from Ama­zon War­riors af­ter three years there, and he will be joined by New Zealand bat­ting star Bren­don Mc­Cul­lum, South Africa's Hashim Am­la and Pak­istani Umar Ak­mal.

And along with the likes of West In­dies all-rounder Dwayne Bra­vo and left-arm spin­ner Sulie­man Benn, TKR own­er Shah Rukh Khan be­lieves the fran­chise will be se­ri­ous ti­tle con­tenders again.

"We have as­sem­bled some of the best play­ers from the West In­dies and across the world this year and I know our play­ers are rar­ing to step out on to the field and rep­re­sent T&T with pride," he said.

"I know we can count on the full sup­port of the Trin­ba­go fans to cheer TKR as we com­mence the de­fence of our ti­tle."

The CPL runs un­til Au­gust 7.