By Neto Baptiste
Former national cricketer and coach of the All Saints Pythons cricket team, Derrol “Musai” Thomas, has commended fast bowler Alzarri Joseph on his recent success in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Mega Auction held over the weekend.
The West Indies and Leeward Islands player, who also features for Pythons when available, was picked up on day two of the draft for US $320,000 by one of the league’s newest teams, the Gujarat Titans.
Thomas hopes other youngsters could follow in Joseph’s footsteps.
“First of all, I must say kudos to Alzarri and he is one of the guys, from ever since I’ve been around him, you can tell his work ethic is different from the others and he puts his all into it, so just like how he trains is just how he plays his game. He is no joke so I must say that his hard work has paid off and to all of the other youngsters around us, I hope they could look up and see what’s going on with Alzarri. I must say congrats to him and good luck to him with his new club and hope that he does well, not only for him but for the club in All Saints,” he said.
Pythons are currently second in the standings for the Super 40 competition with six points after two matches. They triumphed over Empire Nation by five wickets on Sunday, but had their contest against Bolans Blasters on abandoned on Saturday due to a wet pitch.
Thomas said he is pleased with their performance against one of the giants in local cricket.
“We were going good just before the under-19 tournament but the two coaches in myself and Roxy Joseph, we were doing some liaison officer work but Danny Benjamin and Kerry Mentor and the others kept the little momentum going and these guys had some practice games over a period of time and it came into play,” he said.
Joseph holds the record for best bowling in an IPL match. The Antiguan, in April of 2019, took six wickets for 12 runs in 3.4 overs to bowl Mumbai Indians to a 40-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad.