ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC-, New Zealand batsman Martin Guptill says he hopes the Limacol Caribbean Premier League (LCPL) can help sell the best of his country’s cricket to the rest of the world.
The Black Caps have struggled to convince other countries to provide them with lengthy international engagements, especially at Test level, something spoken of last week by fast-bowling legend Sir Richard Hadlee.
However Guptill hopes the Limacol CPL has helped to lift New Zealand’s global cricketing profile. “James Franklin and I have had reasonably successful tournaments (for Guyana Amazon Warriors),” he said.
“It puts us out there and hopefully people will take notice. From what I read, Sir Richard’s comments were more to do with (New Zealand’s limited amount of) Test cricket than anything else and we are struggling a little in the Test game at the moment”.
Guptill has been put on the injury list for the remainder of the inaugural tournament with a broken bone in his right hand while James Franklin has impressed for the Guyana Amazon Warriors and former national captain Ross Taylor slotted into the Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel line-up.
Despite his injury and the loss of Pakistan Twenty20 International captain Mohammad Hafeez to national duty in Zimbabwe, Guptill said he still believed the Warriors could still go all the way and win the title.
“I definitely think we can,” he said.
“We showed we can with our chase of a decent total against Antigua (on Saturday night). We got to the last ball and we came through. The spirit is good in the camp and hopefully we can take that forward to the semi-final and hopefully the final.”
