SA20: MI Cape Town looking for some Caribbean flair from Nicolas Pooran

The defending champions lost Dewald Brevis to Pretoria Capitals in the auction but, with the signing of Pooran, will not lose any explosiveness in the middle of the batting order.

The left-hander Trinidadian has become one of the most sought-after players in T20 leagues around the world and, according to Peterson, is chomping at the bit to perform in front of the Newlands faithful.

"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," Peterson told reporters.

"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."

MI Cape Town kick off the defence of their title with a home game against Durban's Super Giants and Peterson knows that as the holders of the trophy comes extra responsibility.

"All the teams have improved," Peterson added. "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."

Peterson does not yet have his full squad at training in Cape Town but is confident all his players will be available on 26 December at Newlands.

Proteas internationals Ryan Rickelton, Jason Smith and Dane Piedt, along with Tiaan van Vuuren and Dan Lategan were some of the players at practice on Thursday.

Peterson said: "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.

"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."