Cape Town — MI Cape Town coach Simon Katich is hoping to turn Newlands into a fortress during the upcoming SA20 tournament.
Katich, who has previously been in the visitors dressing room at the picturesque venue under Table Mountain with the Australian team, will now move across to the home quarters next January.
Originally from Perth in Western Australia, before moving to Syndey with New South Wales, the gritty former left-hander knows all about the pressure of the expectation of the locals wanting to support a winning team.
Katich has certainly put together a powerful MI Cape Town squad that boats the exciting talents of pre-selected Kagiso Rabada, Dewald Brevis, Rashid Khan, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone before bolstering it even further with shrewd auction picks such as Rassie van der Dussen, George Linde, Ryan Rickleton, Beuran Hendricks and West Indian Odean Smith, among others.
The vast array of talent will certainly have the Newlands faithful pouring through the turnstiles once the action gets underway, and Katich is looking for his team to feed off that atmosphere.
“It’s pretty similar to back home in Australia, so that suits me fine,” Katich said. “Newlands is a fantastic venue. I think from a playing point of view, playing our home games, and potentially early on in the tournament, and hopefully that will get us off to a good start depending on how it all plays out.”
The MI Cape Town auction table was certainly as star-studded as its playing roster with Katich being assisted by Sri Lankan legend and MI global head of performance Mahela Jayawardene and former Proteas all-rounder Robin Peterson, who is the General Manager of MI Cape Town.
Peterson’s input was certainly valued when it came to the signing of the locals uncapped players such as Duan Jansen, Delano Potgieter, Grant Roelofsen, Wesley Marshall and Ziyaad Abrahams.
“We’ve tried to get some local players into our group. Like anything we want to maximise that advantage at home with the right balance of your team, and as the caravan moves around to the other venues, that we still have the balance to work at different venues as well,” Katich said.
“I think this is going to be a very exciting tournament, and I think the quality of the local players that we saw on show today along with the influx of the overseas players and the experience they bring not just on the field, but also off the field and help to develop some of the younger players in our squad will be great for the benefit of the squad.”
IOL Sport