Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers (TKR) fast bowler Muham­mad Ali Khan says that the Caribbean Pre­mier League (CPL) se­mi-fi­nal loss to the Bar­ba­dos Tri­dents last year still hurts.

Khan in an ex­clu­sive in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia Sports said he has not got­ten over that loss men­tal­ly. "I have not men­tal­ly re­cov­ered from that loss to Bar­ba­dos Tri­dents last year and it still hurts."

Bar­ba­dos Tri­dents bat­ted first at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my and scored 160/6 af­ter at one stage be­ing 112/6. Ali Khan bowled well and end­ed with two wick­ets in his four-over spell. TKR in re­sponse slipped from a po­si­tion of strength at 54/2 to be all out for 148 - los­ing the en­counter by 12 runs. The Tri­dents led by Ja­son Hold­er even­tu­al­ly went on to win the ti­tle deny­ing TKR a hat­trick of ti­tles.

Khan said he is look­ing for­ward to com­ing back to T&T to join the TKR as he has un­fin­ished busi­ness. "I have heard talk that the CPL will not start on time which is mid-Au­gust but I am look­ing for­ward to it to play at least lat­er on. There is a pos­si­bil­i­ty that it may be played in De­cem­ber or Jan­u­ary as well be­cause they don't want to clash with the In­di­an Pre­mier League (IPL) which is go­ing to play at some time.

"I am look­ing for­ward to com­ing back to Trinidad a place I love to join up with my team­mates at the TKR and to fight and get back our tro­phy. We have a great bunch of guys and a great leader in DJ (Dwayne Bra­vo) and we will be back. I al­ways like play­ing un­der this guy be­cause he gives me so much sup­port and con­fi­dence in my crick­et. I could be struck for two fours or six­es back to back and he will still come to me and back me. Last year Kieron Pol­lard was al­so great for us and I en­joyed play­ing un­der him as well."

Khan said he has been busy dur­ing the lock­down in Ohio where he lives in the Unit­ed States. "I have used this pe­ri­od in quar­an­tine to get stronger. I have a very good friend who is a fit­ness in­struc­tor and he has been send­ing me stuff to do. Some­times I go for a run just to keep the car­dio up but all in all, when I re­turn to crick­et, I will be stronger."

With talk go­ing around that CPL made be played with­out for­eign play­ers this year, Khan said: "I come un­der the ban­ner of a lo­cal

play­er and not a for­eign play­er so what­ev­er is the case, I will be there fight­ing for me team."

The tour­na­ment is card­ed to be­gin Au­gust 19 with a clash be­tween the TKR and the St. Kitts/Nevis Pa­tri­ots at the Queen's Park Oval in Port-of-Spain. Re­cent­ly Chief Op­er­a­tions Of­fi­cer (C00) of CPL Pe­te Rus­sell stat­ed that with the Covid 19 pan­dem­ic go­ing on the start is not con­firmed but they are hop­ing to get the tour­na­ment off as soon as they get the all-clear from Crick­et West In­dies (CWI).