2 weeks Ago
Dwayne Bravo has been a faithful servant of Trinidad and Tobago and West Indies cricket. It was appropriate, therefore, for the allrounder to feature on the winning team in what could well be his final Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) match. CPL 2024 is Bravo’s last season in “The Biggest Party in Sport”.
And what a party it was at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain on Wednesday as Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) beat arch-rivals Guyana Amazon Warriors! It was a fitting farewell for a man who knows how to party. DJ Bravo has made a name for himself in T20 cricket. He helped West Indies win the 2012 and 2016 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup titles during a 91-match T20 international career, scoring 1,255 runs and taking 78 wickets for the regional team.
It is in franchise cricket, however, that Bravo has endeared himself to the world. His T20 statistics are mind-blowing: a total of 580 matches; 6,970 runs at a strike rate of 125.49; 631 wickets with an economy rate of 8.
25. The CPL and the IPL (Indian Premier League) have been Bravo’s main stages. He first graced the IPL stage in the 2007/08 season, plying his trade for the Mumbai Indians.
He is best known, though, in the yellow of Chennai Super Kings, playing 116 of his 161 IPL matches for CSK. In the CPL, Bravo has played for TKR 87 times. He also has 18 appearances for St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the 2021 and 2022 seasons for a total of 105 CPL matches.
Bravo is the leading wicket-taker in CPL history, grabbing 129 scalps. The most recent victim was Keemo Paul, Bravo bowling the Amazon Warriors player off the inside edge, a telling contribution as TKR restricted the Guyanese franchise to 148 for seven. Bravo celebrated the Paul dismissal with his “Champion” dance, a reminder of the parallel career he made for himself as a singer of sorts.
TKR went on to win by five wickets with four balls to spare in front of a packed, partisan Oval crowd. Wednesday was special. All the TKR players wore Bravo’s number, “47”, on their backs.
They formed a guard of honour for their affable teammate before the match started. And Dwayne John Bravo, aka SIR Champion, was driven around the field ahead of the TKR innings to soak in the adulation of his adoring home fans. Bravo is 40, and just a couple weeks from his 41st birthday.
You could not have guessed his age, though, when he took a sharp catch at slip to bring an end to a threatening knock from New Zealand’s Tim Robinson. While we celebrate Bravo’s amazing T20 career, let us not forget he has also contributed significantly in the longer formats. The Santa Cruz allrounder played 40 Tests for West Indies, notching three centuries and grabbing 86 wickets.
And in 164 One Day Internationals, he scored 2,968 runs and claimed 199 scalps. Well played, SIR Champion. Bravo!.
