 Yeah, let's transition to cricket now on the sports mic zone, after a nail-biting finish to the West Indies Championship, Guyana Harpy Eagles are celebrating a successful defense of the crown. The Harpy Eagles comprehensively won their final round match against the combined campuses and colleges by eight wickets on Friday, leaving them to sit back and watch the outcomes of the remaining fixtures in the round. However, a draw between then-leaders, Wynald Islands Volcanoes and fourth-placed Lee Wood Islands Hurricanes, along with a shocking defeat for Barbados Pride at the hands of the West Indies Academy, made way for the Harpy Eagles to lift the Headley Weeks Trophy and take home the US $250,000 cash prize. Here are the final standings. The Guyana Harpy Eagles finishing with 103.8 points ahead of the Wynald Islands Volcanoes 98.2, the Lee Wood Islands Hurricanes 94, Barbados Pride finishing in fourth, 92.8, just 0.8 points ahead of Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies Academy 71.6, the Jamaica Scorpions 59.4 and the combined campuses and colleges 30.2 points. Congratulations to the Guyana Harpy Eagles, went into the final round in fourth position but they found a way to get the job done, they did what they needed to do and now we have Tevin Imlak, he is the captain of the Harpy Eagles team. Tevin, welcome to the Sports Mag Zone, how are you doing today? I'm doing pretty fine, happy, happy place, obviously we won, so feeling very good. What have the last two days been like? Mix emotions, we went into the final day, obviously we already won our game, so waiting, nail biting finish, hoping that the academy could come through for us, it was a mix emotions. One time you feel like you're there, next time you feel like you might not get it, so definitely mix emotions. Take me specifically through those emotions because I'm sure you probably as a team watched a lot of the final day between Barbados Pride and West Indies Academy, West Indies Academy on top at one stage, then it looked as if the Pride had it, then the West Indies Academy sneaked it, just take me through the roller coaster of emotions through Saturday. Yeah definitely, the case where, you know, we were hoping for some rain to be honest, let me take you some time, but yeah, it was a case of just hope, we knew that the academy, they have some good players and they can pull it off, but it was a case of Barbados not getting too far ahead, because obviously if they would have had a massive lead, they could have pushed the game a lot more and could have gone a bit hard at them, so it was a case of us just there hoping every weekend, every run we were following and every time we could, you know, fast, the academy is like, you know, we lose the weekend as a team, so it would definitely be a roller coaster ride, but when the academy won the game, you know, it was just jubilation, everybody was just, you know, crazy and happy about everything at the end of the time. Yeah, talk to me about how significant this is for the Guy in a Harpy Eagle setup, because no stranger is to winning regional four day titles, I think you are seven from the last nine now, so this has become a consistent thing, but Tevin Imlak is a relatively new captain with some new players in the setup, so from that standpoint, I suppose it's extremely significant for this bunch of guys. Yeah, definitely, I mean, you know, coming in as a pretty, it was a pretty inexperienced backing lineup, to say the least, a lot of the players, you know, would have had one or two seasons in most, and you know, to see, you know, where the team started and where we end up at the end, you know, it showed a lot of character and it showed growth. On the other side of it, you know, we had experienced bowlers, you know, and there are some people in the mall, the same player, to the Kishmote, you know, those three guys are attackers, basically built around, you know, tree resting, these spinners, quality spinners, obviously, you know, that, you know, a guy in our, we lie very heavily on our spin. You know, we had, also, Niall Smith and young Isaiah Thorne that, you know, they show a lot of growth throughout the tournament from game to game, especially young Isaiah Thorne, I think he was special to see him, you know, the growth that he made, the stride that he made throughout the tournament, start his first game, you know, a bit nervous and things are necessarily going his way, and then, you know, from there, just, just seeing his consistency and his growth throughout, you know, we'd love him to look at Niall Smith coming back from injury and leading the attack as a fast bowler, it was brilliant to see. Yeah, for us, I'm in for more, taking 29 wickets in the tournament for the Ghana Harpy Eagles, the number nine bowler, as far as wicket taking is concerned in the tournament, the only Harpy Eagles bowler in the top 10 this season, with Niall Smith getting 20 wickets, the next best, and you spoke about an inexperienced batting lineup. Kevin Sinclair led batting for your team, getting over 500 runs, but you were impressive as well, 485 runs for the season and finishing in the top five. Talk about the importance of those two contributions, Kevin Sinclair, but also how do you see yourself as leader of this group and taking on that responsibility with a bat? Yeah, I mean, for Kevin, you know, he's somebody I would say you'd go to Warwick at any time, you know, he's a class player, he's someone who's given 110% every time he steps on the field. He's a brilliant cricketer, and I was just happy to see him, you know, move from stride to stride, you know, every year he's been consistent for us, he's been doing well, year-go, year-come, and it just shows that this is good. On my end, you know, I was just happy to contribute, contribute to the captain, you know, obviously, you know, being in that role, you need to lead from the front, you need, if you're going to ask players to do stuff, you know, you need to show that yourself, so I'm happy to, you know, just be a part of the runs and add value to the team. Yeah, and just to follow up on the question about captain C, Tevin, does being the captain of the Ghana Happy Eagles ever come with a lot of pressure, or has your team made the job a bit easier for you? Because many times on this show, we talk about when players are handed captain C, you know, it can be a blessing, or sometimes it can be a curse, because it, of course, affects the players' own performances. What was it like for you? It was challenging, to be honest, because playing with the players, like playing with them and not having a leadership role is much different from being in that position, because obviously, you know, you have friends, and at times you'd have to make some tough decisions where you might have to take them off, or, you know, you might need to drop someone for some reason or the other, so, and, you know, players are always, they always want to do well, and they always want, you know, they bar in the hand, they always want to make a difference as a beautiful Ghana person, the players that we have. But, and that makes it a bit challenging, you know, having to manage that and, you know, deal with that aspect. But, you know, it's been brilliant still. We have a, what I call it, think tank, you know, we have the support staff, the coaches, you know, a lot of senior players, like Grisame, for example, Yurikishmoti, you know, these guys that you can lean on, you know, to ask for advice, because as a captain, you can't see everything, especially the young captain, you might not, you know, be able to see everything. So it's very easy, it makes it a lot easier when you can lean on these other players for advice and stuff like that. It makes the job a lot more easier. So I had a lot of support from the back home staff and, you know, a lot of the players, but it was challenging, it was different. Obviously, this time around, I didn't have the opportunity to keep. So, you know, that's going to be a different challenge I'm going to keep and captain as well. So I'm looking forward to it, but time will tell. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exciting stuff. And you know, you touched on the coach, you touched on the back room staff and it's always good when a captain gets the support from those, of course, behind the scenes. I've noticed something though, when it comes to Gaena and sports and it's something that has been on my mind. And every time I interview our Guyanese, I'm going to ask them because we have seen a massive development in sport in Gaena on the whole. It's not only in cricket. I've seen the women cricketers as well do very well. The Guyanese female cricketers have spoken to players, of course, footballers, just different aspects of sport. What do you think, Tevin, is the reason for this sudden rise in Guyanese sport? Yeah, I mean, in Gaena, we're a big love of sports, to be honest. And have the support of the government of Gaena, they're always willing to help. For example, going into the season, the president assisted on the team with gears to start a tournament which was excellent. It was the first time something like that had ever happened. It was brilliant to see. It's just a reflection of where we're going and the work that goes on behind the scenes to make Gaena sport better and moving forward. Tevin, I have two questions for you before we go. One, your development as a cricket, a domestic cricket, you play for DCC, the Demarara Cricket Club. Can you talk to us about the club and how influential it would have been in developing your game? Yeah, very. I started there, I'm still there at the moment. It's a club with rich history. A lot of cricketers, great West Indian players would have come from the club. And there are players that are still very involved in the club and the development of the club. That's Roger Harper's club, right? Roger Harper's club? Yes, he's the president at the moment. So it's just a rich history and the environment that they create allows for young players to come true and develop and move forward. And quickly, you had missed the first two rounds because you were on an international duty, which the Guyanese had lost one and drawn one. But since you took over as captain, you've won five in a row. Can you say what specifically was your impact in getting Gaena back on the winning track? Because as I said after the first two rounds of the season, Gaena were without a victory and your title defense looked a little shaky. But somehow you took over as captain and you just won five straight and the title is now yours. Can you say specifically what your input was in trying to get the team on track to the title defense? It's tough to say. Those first two games we had... I started with saying that the team was very inexperienced, especially the back and line-up. And those two games we started forward, because it's always going to be difficult when you have four debutants playing there for this game. And it's even more inexperienced than what we had. So coming back was just me, but it was Guru Kishmoti that brought back some stability to the bowling attack and myself as well with some experience. So I think that brought a bit of confidence back to the team. And we did a lot of good things. The forest innings of the West Indies game didn't go so well, but the second innings was brilliant. We scored 200 runs and the team just... We picked up some momentum from that. It was just brilliant to see players stepping up in this one situation. It came out as the every brilliant 100 against Jamaica in a situation where... And he was struggling a bit for London and he came up and showed character. He just showed the strength of the team and individuals coming together to make this thing work. So I won't put it down to me alone or myself or what I did. I think it's just a complete team. Yeah, you're definitely a team. And Tevin Imlaqi spoke about savers 100 at Sabina Park. I was rather impressed with your 100 as well against the Jamaica Scorpions because you had to retire her initially, didn't you? What was the issue? Yeah, would you? It was just shoes, man. I got a hit on my hand. The hand just started getting weaker and weaker. I was worried about getting out at that stage when I could have came back. It made sense for me to just retire. That point was tough because we had just lost and we could... Everything happens for a reason. I'm a strong believer in that. It worked out to me. Yeah, there you go and then you came back to your entry, which ultimately helped significantly in Guy and a Harpy Eagles going on to win the title. One quick one before I go and maybe it's just me. But has anyone ever told you that you sound a little bit like the former West Indies captain and current limited overs coach? Darren Sammy? No. Maybe it's just me, my friend. Congratulations, Tevin. I enjoyed this one very much. Yeah, thank you. Was it just me? It was just you. He sounds like Tevin. We go to break.