CPL 2021: Hetmyer looks to rediscover fluency and form of 2018

By Akeem Greene

Denis Waitley, an American motivational speaker once said, “Losers live in the past. Winners learn from the past and enjoy working in the present toward the future.”

In 2018, Shimron Hetmyer set the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) alight with some scintillating batting, however, his consistency and impact has not been the same since.

That season, his 440 runs in 12 innings came at an average of 40, and it saw him finish as the tournament’s third-leading runs-scorer and highest by a Caribbean batsman.

He even scored a century, the youngest by a batsman in the tournament, and his One-Day International form was at its peak since he averaged over 40 and had three centuries.

However, in the 23 CPL innings over the two seasons that followed, he has only made 491 runs – no centuries but four fifties.

Speaking at a media briefing on Monday, the talented batsman said he hopes he can return to such heights for the Amazon Warriors this season.

“CPL is always big for me because it is basically the tournament I look forward to playing for Guyana”, he expressed.

“Form wise, I think have been doing decent, and with 2018, it was a very good year for me because it was the first year I played 10 games, so it is something  I am looking forward to as it regards bringing back that form.”

He added, “that year, I was really finding myself as being part of the T20 team and being a critical part of a batting lineup as well so now it is really up to me to build on that and pick back some of the good performance I would have had then and even now with the West Indies team.”

In preparation for title defence at this year’s World T20, West Indies has opted to give Hetmyer the ‘anchor’ role, one which he said is easy given the quality of power-hitting in the squad.

As it relates to his role for the Amazon Warriors, he said it will be determined by the situation.

The bigger picture is the stuck record of when will a title come the Warriors way after five unsuccessful finals. The 24-year-old has picked each player knowing their specific role and performing them as the key to breaking the jinx.

“I think it is everyone knowing their roles; it is a big thing we have in the West Indies [T20I] team, that players knowing their specific role and not just knowing [but] going out and showcasing it.”

Hetmyer further expounded, “We had different players putting their hands up for different occasions so it is really for us as a team, not just batsmen or bowlers, to put our hands up in a specific area…it is really for us to stick together as one and go towards the same goal as well.”

The dashing batsman and company will play the first match of this year’s tournament on Thursday when they come up against the powerful defending champions, Trinbago Knight Riders at 10:00h.