THE DRAFTING of players to represent the six franchises in the inaugural Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 Championships which bowls off on July 30 in Barbados is scheduled for next Wednesday in the Reggae Island of Jamaica.

The question several cricket-loving fans and enthusiasts would be asking each other is ‘Who will represent Guyana in this much anticipated and highly lucrative tournament?’
Players of the calibre of Travis Dowlin, who has the most runs in Regional T20 cricket, Christopher Barnwell who was bought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for this year’s Pepsi Indian Premier League but did not play any game, and Ramnaresh Sarwan are some of the names in the draft from Guyana.
Other players such as Narsingh Deonarine, Assad Fudadin, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Devendra Bishoo, Veerasammy Permaul, Ronsford Beaton, Trevon Griffith, Amir Khan, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Ricardo Adams and Clinton Pestano are also included.
There are five pools of players namely the West Indies and the Overseas Franchise and Pools A, B and C, with Pool C comprising the Under-23 players, from which two must be selected by each franchise.
According to the CPL T20 website www.cplt20.com, the selection of the team is being done by the head coach, assistant coach, the West Indies franchise player and overseas franchise player, while the four can conduct a trade for one player within 24 hours after the draft is completed, with each team being allowed one trade.
It has been confirmed that Trinidad and Tobago’s spin wizard Sunil Narine is the West Indies franchise player designated to Guyana with the overseas franchise player being Pakistan’s all-rounder Mohammed Hafeez, cementing Guyana’s history of providing a spin-based bowling attack for Regional competitions.
With those two being selected, the other players will be chosen from: Travis Dowlin, Narsingh Deonarine, Veerasammy Permaul, Devendra Bishoo, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Trevon Griffith, Steven Jacobs, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Royston Crandon, Rajiv Ivan, Rajendra Chandrika and Richard Ramdeen.
There is also Paul Wintz, Leon Johnson, Christopher Barnwell, Derwin Christian, Brandon Bess, Assad Fudadin, Dillon Heyliger, Zaheer Mohammed, Ronsford Beaton, Keon Joseph, Jonathan Foo, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Amir Khan, Ricardo Adams, Anthony Bramble and Clinton Pestano.
How will Narine and Hafeez be involved in the selection of the Guyana team is another question to be answered, since the two spin wizards will be involved in the West Indies and Pakistan team preparations for next month’s International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy in England.
Another question that will be lingering is their knowledge of the Guyanese players, only if their recent performance in the Caribbean T20 competitions is taken into consideration when the time comes to do the draft next Wednesday.
A total of 90 players will be contracted to play in the CPL, with each of the six franchise teams comprising of 15-player squads and all teams are required to have a minimum number of local players from their franchise country and at least two of them must be under the age of 23.
Teams can also field a maximum of four international players, but the remainder of the team must consist of regional and/or local players.
Meanwhile, former Guyana and West Indies all-rounder Roger Harper and fast bowling great Curtly Ambrose were yesterday named the coach and assistant coach of  Team Guyana  respectively, bringing with them years of experience into the game.
With that in mind, what is certain is all of Guyana will be waiting to see who these players are, along with their performances in the tournament, taking into consideration the team’s performance in the recent Caribbean T20 tournament, where they lost to Trinidad and Tobago in the final.