BIRRELL LAUDS ST GEORGE'S CROWD AS 'BEST IN THE WORLD'

The cliches in sport about an individual or team’s second season are plentiful. Whether it’s about being ‘found out’, lacking motivation or everybody gunning for you, Sunrisers Eastern Cape are likely to get familiar with questions along those lines ahead of their defence of the Betway SA20 title.

Be that as it may, their coach Adrian Birrell is looking forward to Season 2 with optimism.

“I’m very excited to get going. I’ve had a good break after being with Hampshire until the end of September and since then I’ve been at home – so can’t wait to get started.”

Sunrisers Eastern Cape’s media department were eager to get Birrell’s take on one of his dressing room speeches that had quite prophetic to it in hindsight. In it, the 62-year-old from Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) can be heard telling his squad “it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish… and I’m just saying, the last three times I’ve played in tournaments in T20 cricket my teams have won”. And finish strong is exactly what they did after losing their first two matches of their League campaign.

“We got on a roll and started winning. Hopefully, we don’t have that difficult start… that we can start a bit better. We have a few new players – a few new overseas players, a few new local players so there’ll be a little bit of a different atmosphere but hopefully if we play well we can get the same result.”

SIGNINGS RECAP

Sunrisers Eastern Cape’s new signings for Season 2 are: Simon Harmer (trade-in from Durban's Super Giants), Liam Dawson (ENG – pre-signing), Dawid Malan (ENG – pre-signing), Beyers Swanepoel (auction signing), Caleb Seleka (auction signing), Andile Simelane (rookie), Daniel Worrall (AUS – replacement for Brydon Carse).

Ahead of the new campaign, Sunrisers have adopted #PlayWithFire as their slogan and Birrell spoke to how he intends inculcating that into the Season 2 squad of 19.

“I do plan on taking them to my home and do another talk with the team. It will be a little different but also much the same; we know that the fire is the heart of the team and we need to look after that and hopefully we can get enough warmth out of that fire to really fight and perform very well this season.”

Considering, he is born and bred in the Eastern Cape, his role with the Sunrisers and – in fact – the effect of the Orange Army resonates strongly with Birrell who will have a fully South African coaching staff alongside, namely assistant coach Baakier Abrahams and new batting coach Russell Domingo who are both from Gqeberha as well as Proteas legend Dale Steyn (bowling coach) and Ryan Cook (fielding coach) who thanks to his role with sister team Sunrisers Hyderabad the Netherlands national team probably bleeds orange.

Russell Domingo (second left) has joined the Sunrisers' coaching group as batting coach to complete an entire local set-up with Baakier Abrahams, Dale Steyn and Ryan Cook.

“This is home for me. I live one hour away [in Makhanda] so it’s a pleasure to be here… I’ve spent all my life here. [St George’s Park] is my favourite ground and certainly my favourite atmosphere and crowd. We’ve got the best crowd, bar none, in the whole world so we’ve got great support and it’s really a privilege for me to be involved.”

In closing Birrell reiterated how much the defending champions value their home support.

“We really appreciate the support – like last year, let’s make sure we are the best crowd, the loudest crowd, the most festive crowd and it’s very appreciated by the players.