MI Cape Town tackle the Stormers as Robbie P awaits the arrival of Nicky P ahead of SA20 opener

MI Cape Town coach Robin Peterson may give his Stormers counterpart John Dobson a ring about scrumhalf Imad Khan’s availability for the Betway SA20 Season 4.

Jokes aside, Khan, 22, who recently scored a try on his Champions Cup debut, was certainly the most impressive batter on show at Newlands on Tuesday with the young No 9 smashing the ball both sides of the wicket. 

“The scrumhalf, he spoke a big game and backed it up. He warmed into it with a few defensive shots before going big,” Peterson said at Newlands after the net session between his MI Cape Town players and the Stormers rugby team. 

“It certainly reminded me of years ago when I played for the (Cape) Cobras. We used to play a cricket game against them (Stormers) at a sold-out Newlands, so it's nice to rub shoulders with them. They're having a good season this year, so long may that continue.”

The serious stuff begins for Peterson and his MI Cape Town charges fairly soon too. The Betway SA20 champions kickoff their title defence in the tournament opener on Boxing Day at Newlands against Durban’s Super Giants. 

A small component of the players have already arrived, including Proteas Ryan Rickelton, Jason Smith and Dane Piedt along with youngsters Tiaan van Vuuren and Dan Lategan. 

Peterson is happy to get working with the players available to him at the moment. 

“Very good, we don't have the full complement yet, there's eight or nine guys here, which is good, it gives you a chance to get really intimate with some of them,” he said. 

“But yeah everybody's in good spirits. Some guys are on national duty, some guys at different competitions around the world, but everybody's shaping up well and looking forward to the campaign this year.”

MI Cape Town have lost the mercurial talents of Dewald Brevis to upcountry rivals, the Pretoria Capitals, for the coming season, but have replaced him with the explosive West Indian Nicholas Pooran. 

Peterson and Pooran share a healthy relationship after the pair led MI New York to the Major League Cricket (MLC) title a couple of years ago, and the former Proteas allrounder is certainly excited to have the Trinidad and Tobago superstar down at Newlands. 

“I played with Nicky 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's 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.”

Peterson, who recently also led the Warriors to the CSA T20 Domestic T20 Challenge title, is also acutely aware that holding on to the SA20 trophy will be a lot harder than winning it. 

“All the teams have improved, I think it's certainly a tag whenever you put the MI shirt on you know you’re the hunted around the world anyway, so it's not anything new for us.

“But now we definitely understand the responsibility this year, other teams have improved, so we're going to be on our game and make sure that we dot our I's and cross our T's going into this competition.”