WATCH: Windies T20 superstar Nicholas Pooran ready to bring calypso power to MI Cape Town

West Indies T20 legend Nicholas Pooran is coming to South Africa for just one reason: to take the spoils and win Betway SA20 with MI Cape Town. 

Pooran is a serial franchise T20 League winner, having won both the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and Major League Cricket (MLC), and has now set his sights on South Africa’s premier T20 competition. 

The 30-year-old has tasted SA20 action before with Durban’s Super Giants, but now joins the current defending champions MI Cape Town and is hoping that his Calypso power can help the Newlands side win back-to-back championships. 

“I haven't won the SA20 yet, and this year gives me the opportunity to obviously try my best. It's really an important opportunity, not just for me, but also for the local talent,” the electrifying left-hander said ahead of Friday's much-anticipated season opener against his former team DSG at Newlands.

“Over the last couple of years, South Africa has started to dominate international cricket and has been really consistent, so it's really important for every single person who's participating.”

MI Cape Town have lost the explosive Dewald Brevis, who was instrumental in the championship-winning campaign last season, but Pooran will slot straight into the vacant middle-order slot bringing arguably even more power.  

He is sixth on the all-time list of most sixes (149) in the T20 career. 

His acclimatisation at Newlands will also be helped by being surrounded by many familiar faces. Pooran and captain Rashid Khan won the MLC together at MI New York, while his relationship with head coach Robin Peterson goes back a long way. 

"I managed to play with Nick when he was a young player in the Caribbean Premier League and got to work with him in terms of management so I've got a long relationship with Nicky, he's definitely looking to come here and perform in front of the crowd," Peterson said.

 "I think Cape Town is a city that was a big attraction for him and his family to come to Newlands. It's something that he wanted for the last couple of years."