T&T Red Steel victory owed to Brian Lara, says Skipper

On Friday night, the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel picked up its first win of the team’s four matches to date, in the inaugural Limacol Caribbean Premier League T20 Tournament, and skipper Dwayne Bravo credits fellow Trinidadian Brian Lara for the victory.{{more}}

Bravo says that Lara called and invited him over to his house for a chat, and then took some time to speak with the batsmen, which he said made a big difference to the team and helped him as a captain.

“He told me there’s a lot of outside pressure, but it’s for me to stay calm and remember that I deal well with pressure. As Coach says, the pressure is always there, but it’s how you deal with the pressure.”

Kevin O’Brien, who was named Man of the Match for his 70 off 47 balls, obviously benefited from Lara’s words of wisdom also.

“He told us that we have to play every game as if it was the finals, and that there was a lot of pressure, but that we need to embrace the pressure,” said O’Brien. “He also told us to play the way that we know how to play, but also play collectively as a team, which struck home for us.”

“We really needed that win to stay alive in the tournament,” added Bravo. “We had a good chat together as a group, starting with the head coach [Gordon Greenidge] and the assistant coach [David Williams]. We all planned very well, knowing the importance of last night’s game. Having said that, this victory is attributed to one person, and that is Brian Charles Lara.”