JP Duminy appointed skipper of Cape Cobras in T20 Challenge

JP Duminy has been appointed as the skipper of his hometown Cape Cobras for the upcoming season of T20 Challenge. The tournament is the domestic T20 league of South Africa which was decided to schedule early by Cricket South Africa (CSA) following the postponement of T20 Global League. Recently, the competition also received the title sponsors in RAM Hand to Hand Couriers and is now called as RAM SLAM T20 Challenge.

The left-hander retired from the longest format of the game after he was dropped mid-series during the tour of England. He will now solely focus on the limited-overs format in the lead up to World Cup in 2019 in the same country. He will replace Dane Piedt as the skipper who performed admirably well in his absence. Duminy also led South Africa to the 3-0 victory in the recently concluded T20I series against Bangladesh.

Excited for a challenge

JP Duminy was excited after being appointed as the leader of the pack and was looking forward to the upcoming season with Cape Cobras. “It is going to be a nice responsibility. It is going to be different to the leading the Proteas and more like in the IPL. In the national team most players know their games and what they need to do, but in franchise cricket there are quite a number of young players that often need guidance, so that’s always an exciting challenge,” he said as quoted by Independent Media on Tuesday.

The 33-year-old was earlier going to lead Cape Town Knight Riders in T20 Global League and expressed his disappointment as it was postponed. “I was really excited to lead the Knight Riders and building a new brand in Cape Town, but that has to wait for a little while now and it was quite disappointing. However, growing up in Cape Town, playing my first game for Western Province when I was still at school, I never thought I would captain the Cobras. It wasn’t in my make-up at the time. But having now learnt from great leaders, not just cricket captains, as I have grown older has really got me excited about leading the team I grew up with. I am actually quite nervous,” he added.