“Great feeling” to end 5-year trophy wait – Hosein

The man to hit the winning runs for the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) in Sunday’s epic Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2025 final, Akeal Hosein was over the moon to see his team finally lift the coveted trophy again.
Last securing the accolade back in 2020, TKR had to endure a five-year wait for their fifth CPL title.
As the team took some time out from their celebrations to speak with media operatives, Hosein explained that it was a great feeling to finally add another accolade to their trophy case; repeating some advice he got from Sunil Narine.
“It’s a great feeling. You know, to have a star-studded team for five years and not being able to hold the trophy within that five years, it was quite painful for us. And one thing that Sunil Narine said, he said ‘remember that feeling, remember that losing feeling, remember how the opposition operated when they won and how they rubbed it in our faces. So, let’s make sure we do everything to not create that feeling again’,” Hosein recollected.
He went on to add, “And I thought that, you know, for players and even staff, it was all hands on deck for this win and I’m happy that we could get the win.”
Hosein went on to discuss his time in the middle during the final against the Guyana Amazon Warriors, in which he hit an unbeaten 16 off 7 deliveries to seal the win.

The spinner explained, “I think these totals are very tricky, you don’t know if to rush the score or play it safe and sometimes, you could get caught in the middle and you know, we sort of stumbled a little bit, but thankfully we had enough experience in our team to get over the line.”
A few days prior to that final, Hosein was named Captain of the West Indies T20 squad which will tour Nepal. The spinner admitted that it would be good to embark on the tour on a positive note.
“I feel I’ll not try to mix the two together, but it’s good that I could leave the Caribbean like this in a good frame of mind to go over there and lead a young team. So, I’m looking forward to the challenge,” Hosein expressed.
His big assignment runs from Saturday, September 27 to Tuesday, September 30 when West Indies will take on Nepal in a three-match T20 International (T20I) series at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).