GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) – Caribbean Premier League commercial director Jamie Stewart says the decision to return to primarily night fixtures for this year’s edition of the CPL was as a result of the unsuccessful trial of day games in last year’s tournament.Organisers last Tuesday released the schedule for the June 20 to July 26 tournament, with just three of the 33 games being played during the day.

Last year, organisers experimented with several morning, midday and mid-afternoon games but had only lukewarm responses from spectators.
“I think it’s fair to say that we learnt that having too many day games is not the best idea and return to night cricket allows us from a position that it’s the biggest party in sport and it allows for everyone to be in the party at nights,” Stewart said here.
“CPL is really suited to night cricket where people can knock off work and get together with their friends and go to the grounds and even watch it at home too.”
This year’s fixture features two midday games at Warner Park and another at Queen’s Park Oval, with the bulk of matches been carded for 18:00hrs, with ten games scheduled for 16:00hrs but finishing under lights and another six games will be played from 20:00hrs.
In addition to the return to night games which was a feature of the inaugural year in 2013, Stewart believes the tournament could be the best one staged yet, especially with the players who would be available.
“If you look at the player pool, we have the strongest that we’ve had so far in the CPL, the likes of (Lasith) Malinga and (Tillakaratne) Dilshan playing for the (Guyana Amazon) Warriors even Brad Hodge, the Big Bash player-of-the-year twice,” Stewart pointed out.
“People like (Shahid) Afridi in St Kitts, Mahela Jayawardene with Jamaica, Jacques Kallis playing in Trinidad, Kevin Pietersen this time playing the whole season with St Lucia, (this) will elevate the event.”
Defending champions Barbados Tridents will open the tournament with a clash against Guyana Amazon Warriors at Kensington Oval, in a repeat of last year’s final in St Kitts.