THE Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) is continuing its commitment toward the development of the next generation of Caribbean cricketers with the Cricket West Indies (CWI) Emerging Player programme, which will see the best young talent across the region being guaranteed game time during this year’s tournament.
These players have been selected by CWI and represent the best cricketers aged Under-23 across the region.
Ashmead Nedd is one of the three Guyanese on the list, the others being all-rounder Kevin Sinclair and batsman Bhaskar Yadram.
Each squad will have two of these players and each team must give a minimum of five games to an emerging player, either one player taking the field five times or a combination of appearances between the two players.
The rules and regulations for the 2020 Hero CPL give each team the option to sign a player from the CWI Emerging Player Pool who is from his home territory ahead of the draft.
The deadline for making these early signings has now passed and four teams have made the decision to sign one of these exciting young cricketers before the draft.
Those that did not make one of these signings before the deadline will be given the opportunity to sign their remaining Emerging Players at the Hero CPL draft.
The four players who have been selected are as follows:
Barbados Tridents: Nyeem Young
Guyana Amazon Warriors: Kevin Sinclair
St Lucia Zouks: Kimani Melius
Trinbago Knight Riders: Jayden Seales
In addition to the option to sign a home territory player the teams were also given the opportunity to retain any of their emerging players from last year.
Two teams exercised this option. The players retained are as follows:
St Kitts & Nevis Patriots: Dominic Drakes
Trinbago Knight Riders: Amir Jangoo
Pete Russell, COO of Hero CPL, said: “There is so much cricketing talent across the Caribbean and we want to make sure that our tournament plays its part in creating the next generation of West Indies stars.
“We were delighted with how well these young players did in 2019 and we are really excited to see this group of talented cricketers during the 2020 tournament. The sky is the limit for these young men, and we want to see them succeed at CPL and beyond.”
There are still six available Emerging Player spots in Hero CPL teams for the 2020 tournament which takes place from August 19 to September 26. These will be filled at the draft.
The players who are available to fill those spots are as follows:
Player Home Territory
Alick Athanaze – Windwards
Joshua Bishop – Barbados
Leniko Boucher* – Barbados
Keacy Carty – Leewards
Roland Cato* – Windwards
Joshua da Silva – Trinidad
Nicholas Kirton – Barbados
Mikyle Louis – Leewards
Kirk McKenzie – Jamaica
Ashmead Nedd – Guyana
Jeavor Royal* – Jamaica
Keagan Simmons* – Trinidad
Shamar Springer* – Barbados
Bhaskar Yadram – Guyana