A YEAR’S wait is over and Guyana’s first leg of the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL), the Biggest Party in Sport, will bowl off this evening at the Guyana National Stadium.

At 18:00hrs, a star-studded Guyana Amazon Warriors will meet St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in what is expected to be a thrilling affair, as the Warriors will be looking to protect home territory.

While, excitement is reaching fever pitch across the country, Guyana Amazon Warriors will be fighting it out to win their first CPL title. The Warriors, three-time finalists in the CPL will look to complete the journey this season with their new-look team, led by Pakistani Shoaib Malik. However, the task ahead will be no easy one.

At a pre-match press conference yesterday at the Guyana Marriott Hotel, Georgetown, both Malik and head coach Johan Botha expressed satisfaction re the preparation ahead of the tournament.

Malik, a veteran of 103 T20 internationals and 264 ODIs, pointed out that there is no pressure in the Warriors camp because of the wide variety of options at their disposal.

He further mentioned that a lot will depend on the senior players as well as the local superstars. Malik had previously represented the Barbados Tridents in the last five editions of the tournament, has high expectations of Shimron Hetmyer and Sherfane Rutherford.

Meanwhile, Patriots have only played in three of the five years of the Hero CPL and on two of those occasions they finished in cellar spot. They remodelled their squad in 2017, most notably signing marquee player Chris Gayle, who captained them to the final where they lost to Trinbago Knight Riders.

Both head coach Donavon Miller and West Indies T20 captain Carlos Brathwaite believed that the Warriors cannot be taken lightly.

The three-time beaten finalists have made just one alteration to their squad. Chris Green has replaced Cameron Delport for the first four matches of the tournament. Green has played 27 Twenty20 matches and has scored 149 runs and taken 22 wickets.

He has played for Sydney Thunder at the Big Bash in Australia and the Lahore Qalanders at the Pakistan Super League.  Delport will be unavailable until August 17.

On the other hand, last year’s beaten finalists have also made three changes: Anton Devcich has come in for Tabraiz Shamsi, Hayden Walsh Jr replaces Graeme Cremer, while most recently, Rassie van der Dussan will cover for Sandeep Lamichhane from August 26.

New Zealander Devcich will be replacing Tabraiz Shamsi who will now be with South Africa on their tour of Sri Lanka and then will be representing South Africa-A until the end of August.

Devcich, a 32-year-old spin bowling all-rounder, has previous experience with the CPL having played for the Trinbago Knight Riders in 2016.

Van der Dussen is an explosive batsman who has three T20 hundreds in 65 matches for the Johannesburg franchise.

The full squads read:
Guyana Amazon Warriors: Shoaib Malik, Sohail Tanvir, Chadwick Walton, Chris Green, Rayad Emrit, Imran Tahir, Jason Mohmmed, Luke Ronchi, Veerasammy Permaul, Roshan Primus, Shimron Hetmyer, Devendra Bishoo, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd, Keemo Paul, Saurabh Netravalkar and Akshaya Persaud.

St Kitts and Nevis Patriots: Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Ben Cutting, Carlos Brathwaite, Mahmudullah, Anton Devcich, Tom Cooper, Sheldon Cottrell, Brandon King, Devon Thomas, Hayden Walsh Jr, Fabian Allen, Sandeep Lamichhane, Shamarh Brooks, Jeremiah Louis, Alzarri Joseph, Ibrahim Khaleel and Glen Javelle.