“ Coming into the competition I had a lot of negative messages from all over the world and that motivated me . I ’ m the kind of guy who likes to fight .” towards him- struck the winning runs , having forged a strong connection with the die-hard fans , not just for his superb batting , but his affable boyhood charm .
“ I don ’ t have words to explain the feeling ,” Ayub said after his unbeaten 52 off 41 ( 2x4s , 5x6s ) powered the Amazon Warriors to a nine-wicket win in 14 overs , chasing a target of 95 .
“ These type of results comes when you ’ re not a team , but you ’ re a family . They ( Amazon Warriors ) took care of me like family .”
For the inspirational skipper Imran Tahir , who became the oldest captain to win a T20 trophy at 44 years , 181 days , it was a dream come true and the culmination of an emotional roller-coaster for the franchise .
“ This one is for the beautiful people of this country ,” Tahir said as he paid tribute to the fans , who stuck with the franchise through thick and thin from the inception of the tournament in 2013 .
An uplifting moment for the country is how President Irfaan Ali described the moment the Amazon Warriors lifted the coveted trophy for the first time .
“ This is a moment of great joy and when the country is in great joy and the people are happy , you can ’ t ask for better .”
“ This is also a moment we spoke of when we said we ’ re going to host the CPL Finals and we wanted to build a product- the Cricket Carnival- and bring together not only cricket , but arts , culture , food and music .”
“ We ’ re going to continue to build on this and make this a major aspect of our tourism product .”
The country will once again be on show in June 2024 when the ICC Men ’ s World T20 matches are played at Providence .
Guyana is set to host six games- five group matches from June 2-8 and Semi-Final Two on June 27 .
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