AFM News
Mastering the conditions that make St George's Park special will be key to the goal of the Sunrisers Eastern Cape of reaching the play-offs of the inaugural Betway SA20 competition which officially kicks off on Tuesday.
Head coach, Adrian Birrell, along with Captain Adrian Markram and bowling coach, Dale Steyn, addressed the media ahead of the Sunrisers' opening home fixture on Thursday against Pretoria Capitals, one of five matches scheduled for St George's Park.
"Every team will have the same goals of trying to win, trying to get the right combinations in order to win matches.
But, I think it also applies to winning at home. If we can win our home matches, it goes a long way to getting into the playoffs which is the initial goal," Birrel said.
He said the Sunrsisers will try to maximise the home-ground advantage, adding that they have spoken a lot about the character of the pitch, the field, and the wind, in a bid to get the edge over the opposition.
Birrell said there is also a good local flavour to the team in players like Jon Jon Smuts, Tristan Stubbs, and Sisanda Magala, among others.
"If we can win our home matches, we're halfway there," he added.
Meanwhile, Birrell's sentiments were echoed by Sunrisers Eastern Cape bowling coach, Dale Steyn, who said it was great to be part of the Betway SA20 competition.
"We had written down a bunch of names we were going to target, especially who we thought would do well in these conditions. And, we were very lucky to get them. If we can make this a bit of a fortress and we can play well at home, half the battle is won," Steyn said.
He said in the past week they tried to "throw as much information" at the players and put them in the conditions to make them comfortable with it and when the opposition come here they will be one step behind us."
Captain, Adrian Markram, told the briefing that the players will get an opportunity to showcase their talents on a global stage.
"I think it's fantastic for a lot of our local players to get the exposure that they are going get over the next couple of weeks. We all know that there is a lot of talent in South African cricket and it's great now that they've got an opportunity to show it pretty much on a world stage."
Markram said while some players may not be known to the public at the moment, in a few weeks' time the guys would have made themselves household names and this could be "life-changing".
Tickets for Thursday's match are still available at Ticketpro.
