Captain of the Leeward Islands Thunder for the just concluded West Indies Breakout League, Karima Gore, said the role provided him with an opportunity to grow as both a player and leader.
The Antigua all-rounder led the Thunder to a second place finish in the league, losing in last Saturday’s final by 17 runs to the Trinidad and Tobago Legion at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad.
“I learnt a lot about myself and I learnt a lot about that role going forward. To be honest, I would say I put myself under a lot of pressure because I didn’t really play the way I wanted to play because being captain, you have a lot of responsibility and T20 cricket is a game where you go and try to express yourself. So in that case, I didn’t really feel like I expressed myself like I wanted to but it’s a learning curve going forward,” he said.
Gore, who picked up two wickets in the final, said it was by no means an easy task as he had never led a team at that level in the T20 format before.
“It was a challenge basically stepping from captaining the Antigua team to that level I didn’t really see much of a difference; it was just more from a technical standpoint because we had analysts to plan for a team in term of strategies and how you’d work out a player and stuff like that which, playing for Antigua you don’t really do that in meetings and stuff,” the player said.
The Liberta Blackhawks player who previously represented the USA men’s team, said that knowing his achievements have been pleasing to those who matter most in his life has been the number one motivating factor.
“The joy that I see my mom and father get when they tell me good luck, go and have a good game, safe travels and those sort of things and I think that when your parents can tell you that they are proud of you that it plays a big part on the mind and I am really thankful for that,” Gore said.
Meanwhile, the Antiguan pair of Kofi James and Micah McKenzie finished at the top run scorers and wicket taker at the end of the inaugural tournament.
