The Betway SA20 League Pretoria Capitals Captain Wayne Parnell (left) and Paarl Royals Captain David Miller (right) during the captains briefing The Betway SA20 League Pretoria Capitals Captain Wayne Parnell (left) and Paarl Royals Captain David Miller (right) during the captains briefing and press conference. Picture: SA20
Cape Town - Wayne Parnell is as far removed from a Pretoria local as you can get.
The Proteas all-rounder is a social media influencer of note, often snapped in his funky street gear, dyes his hair all shades of silver, and is married to a Cape Town model.
But for the next month Parnell will call the capital of the nation home as he leads the Pretoria Capitals in the upcoming Betway SA20.
And he knows that one way to get the locals on his side is to get the team winning from the outset, especially as they are accustomed to success with the Titans in South Africa’s domestic competitions.
"Obviously everyone wants to win that beautiful trophy but there is a process that needs to be put in place first and what we've done over the last couple of days with guys flying in every other day and we will eventually have a full quota with us. We will try to play our own brand of cricket that separates us from everyone else," Parnell said.
"Centurion is a place where there has been a lot of success. There's pressure from the people of Pretoria to do well and we want to stay on that path.”
Although seen very much as a maverick cricketer in his youth, having made his international debut way back in 2009 already as a teenager, Parnell has matured a great deal over the past few years.
This has partially been due to his increased family responsibilities - he is now a husband and father of two toddlers - but also the fact that he’s played an extensive amount of limited-overs cricket all around the world.
It is at the Pakistan Super League, Caribbean Premier League, the Hundred and Abu Dhabi T10 that he has rubbed shoulders with some of the most experienced white-ball cricketers and picked their brains on how to gain continued success.
This has been particularly evident when he has led Western Province upon his return to South Africa the past couple of seasons. The impact of his leadership was pivotal in driving WP to their first 1-Day Cup final in seven years last month at the Wanderers.
Furthermore, he embraces an attacking style of cricket where he encourages, particularly the younger players ,to express themselves with bat and ball.
At the Pretoria Capitals, he will be guided by the experienced international coach Graham Ford and also batting coaches Jacques Kallis and Dale Benkenstein.
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Parnell believes the Capitals have a recipe to achieve success as everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet.
“I think the nice thing about when Graham Ford addressed the team, he basically said everything I wanted to say,” he said.
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“From that point of view having management speak the same language is really important and makes leading easy because everyone is geared towards the same end goal.”
The Pretoria Capitals open their SA20 campaign away to the Sunrisers Eastern Cape in Parnell’s hometown of Gqeberha on Thursday.
IOL Sport