'Three Would Be Nice' - Dale Steyn eyes a 'three-peat' with Sunrisers Eastern Cape in SA20 2025

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South African pace legend Dale Steyn, who operates as the bowling coach for Sunrisers Eastern Cape, is gearing up for the SA20 2025 season, which will go all guns blazing in early January.

Sunrisers Eastern Cape (SEC) will kick-start their journey against MI Cape Town in the tournament opener on January 9. In an exclusive interview with myKhel, Steyn shared his thoughts on the challenges of building a successful team and how local players have been key to their past success and his hopes for the upcoming season.

SEC were the champions of the inaugural edition after they beat Pretoria Capitals by 4 wickets in the final at the Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg. Notably, they went on to defend their title to become champions for a second time in the subsequent season. They got the better of Durban's Super Giants by 89 runs in the final at Cape Town.

We can make it three in a row: Dale Steyn

Steyn didn't shy away from expressing his desire to win a third title with Sunrisers Eastern Cape. Having won the SA20 tournament in the first two seasons, the legendary fast bowler is aware of the fact that making history with a three-peat is no easy task. "Three would be nice. But yeah, it's always difficult," Steyn, who took 699 international wickets, echoed.

The 41-year-old who has featured in a lot of T20 competitions in his cricketing journey reflected on how this local connection was a crucial factor in their first championship win. "I've played in a lot of these competitions before. It's always tough to fly in guys all around the world and try and get the players to gel as fast as you can. And often when you get that right, those teams go on to win tournaments. Our first season we tried to get a lot of local players. Actually, we stole them from Robbie Petersen down in Port Elizabeth," Steyn expressed his thoughts.

This strong local foundation allowed the team to come together quickly, which paved the way for their ultimate success. Last but not least, the SEC bowling coach also believes that his team can make it a hat-trick of titles if they play a proper brand of cricket.

"A lot of the players were born in that area and played in that area, or had some kind of association with the venue or the team itself. So, I felt like that helped us go on to get into the final, and then we had a good day, and we won the final. So, you know, we try and do that again, and if we can get that working in our way, and we've got some new players, and exciting players, and we can get them to gel fast, and play their best cricket, and relaxed cricket, we can make it three in a row!" the veteran stated.