…Warriors to square off against Patriots on August 5 in Lauderhill, Florida
Guyana Amazon Warriors’ one-week pre-season camp commenced on Wednesday at the National Stadium, Providence, Guyana with the management using it as an opportunity to test their fitness. The intense training is ahead of their first match of the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) on August 5 against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in Florida.
Several of the players arrived late Tuesday to assemble for the camp, which is headed by Coach Roger Harper and Assistant Coach Esuan Crandon.
The other members of the support staff are Jason Pilgrim (Physio); Clinton Jeremiah (Fitness Coach) and Kurlyn Smith-Nicholas (Masseuse).
Crandon, in addressing the media on Wednesday, contended that an early start to preparation would be critical since it would give those in charge a chance to assess each player.
“Preparation is always important; we have a week together, so we are trying to put in everything we can to get them gelling together.”
The team will continue to have sessions throughout the week to judge their fitness. Responding to questions regarding their quest for a maiden championship, the Coach underscored the importance of taking it one day at a time, and cementing the basic skills needed for success which essentially means being consistent.
Given the team’s first match is at 11:00h in Florida, in conditions that are expected to be humid, Fitness Coach Jeremiah stated that they would be having practice sessions at the aforementioned time to build fitness and he was confident that the players would adapt due to the experiences of playing before at the Central Broward Regional Park.
After playing in Florida, the team head to Trinidad and Tobago, then St Lucia before returning home for four matches.
On the 17th of August, they play the Jamaica Tallawahs; after which they play arch-rivals Trinbago Knight Riders two days later. The Warriors then clash with the Barbados Tridents on the 20th, and will have their final home match against the St Lucia Zouks on the 22nd.
The Amazon Warriors squad comprises Martin Guptill, Rayad Emrit, Sohail Tanveer, Babar Azam, Jason Mohammed, Chadwick Walton, Rashid Khan, Steven Taylor, Keon Joseph, Gajanand Singh, Roshon Primus, Veerasammy Permaul, Assad Fudadin, Steven Jacobs, Steven Katwaroo, Keemo Paul and Muhammad Ali Khan.
Meanwhile, Mayor of Lauderhill, Florida, Richard Kaplan, has spoken to CPL about what it means for Lauderhill to host the tournament for four matches on August 5 and 6. 
“It means carrying out our mission of bringing cricket to the United States and to the community,” Mayor Kaplan says. “There is a great amount of interest in cricket and in sports in general. South Florida is a huge sport mecca. We have numerous major sports: Super Bowl, World Series, World Cup soccer, tennis, golf, baseball, hockey, Stanley Cup – the list goes on and on.”
“The City of Lauderhill has a large Caribbean population and as Mayor of a city you want to provide your residents with what they are looking for. Whatever programs, whatever sports they want – and that’s what we did. We developed programs around their interests, and cricket is one of them.”
The story of how Lauderhill became the home of the only international standard cricket facility in the USA is an interesting one. It began with a trip to Chaguanas in Trinidad to discuss them becoming a sister city with Lauderhill. Mayor Kaplan had conducted some research on cricket before he went on the trip because he had been invited to watch a match between the West Indies and India, where the topic of World Cup venues came up.
“At the time they were discussing the World Cup coming to the Caribbean and this gentleman asked me if Florida would be interested in bidding for the World Cup,” Mayor Kaplan says. Despite being in the USA and not the Caribbean the Mayor was assured that he could bid on hosting matches. “Being a first-term Mayor I did not know any better and I said ‘sure, why not?’ adds Kaplan. “I came back to the United States and we were building a new park. A survey revealed that a cricket stadium was the number one chosen item to be put in there. We went ahead and built the stadium specifically for the World Cup 2007. We put together an incredible bid, overcoming many obstacles, and then we were shut down and was told that the tournament would not be in the United States.
“But the US now had an international-class facility and began to compete with other international teams. We have had several [matches] with the West Indies, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and India. We expect some more in the future and now we have the CPL games.”
The Mayor is very proud of his cricket stadium and has been converted to the game. That Lauderhill is the only facility of this standard in the USA is an obvious source of pride for Kaplan: “The United States Central Broward Regional Stadium is the only ICC-sanctioned cricket stadium. [When researching the stadium] we found there were a lot of people throughout the United States that would rather come to Florida to watch a game than go down to the Caribbean, which is what they previously had to do. It is easier and far less expensive to go from California or New York to here. We do get quite a few people who fly in throughout the United states to watch these games.”
The Hero CPL will be in Lauderhill, Florida, for four matches on August 5 and 6 at the Central Broward Regional Stadium. Tickets are available at http://www.kyazoonga.com/Matches/Lauderhill#Matches
