ANTIGUA Hawksbills will not field a team for 2015, meaning six teams will compete for the Champions crown, currently held by the Barbados Tridents.With the CPL Draft 2015 fast approaching each of the six franchises participating in this year’s tournament has retained the maximum number of four players from the 2014 squads.
The newly-formed St Kitts and Nevis franchise will be taking over the players from the Antigua Hawksbills franchise, which will not be fielding a team for the 2015 season.
The selections of the six teams have been much anticipated further adding to the excitement of the upcoming draft which takes place on Thursday in Kingston, Jamaica.
Of the 24 retained players, 22 come from the Caribbean with the big guns, Gayle, Pollard, Narine, Bravo and Sammy all retained. The two retained international players are England’s Kevin Pietersen and Pakistan’s Shoaib Malik.
The St Kitts and Nevis team will take over responsibility for the players from the Leeward Islands and has been permitted to retain any player who played for the Antigua Hawksbills during the 2014 season.
Whilst it is disappointing that the Antigua Hawksbills will not be part of CPL 2015 it is hoped that the team will return for future tournaments.
CPL Operations Director Michael Hall said: “Looking at the list of retained players you will see the strategy has been to retain the local stars. It will make for an absorbing draft as the heavyweight international players become available for selection. We are all excited to see how the squads shape up and no doubt there will be a few surprises when the coaches choose their picks on Thursday evening in Kingston.
The full list of retained players for CPL 2015 is as follows:
Barbados Tridents – Kieron Pollard, Shoaib Malik, Dwayne Smith, Ravi Ramoaul.
Guyana Amazon Warriors – Sunil Narine, Lendl Simmons, Denesh Ramdin, Christopher Barnwell.
Jamaica Tallawahs – Chris Gayle, Andre Russell, Jerome Taylor, Chadwick Walton.
St Kitts and Nevis (team yet to be named) Carlos Brathwaite, Devon Thomas, Orlando Peters, Justin Atanaze.
St Lucia Zooks – Darren Sammy, Kevin Pietersen, Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher.
Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel – Dwayne Bravo, Darren Bravo, Samuel Badree, Kevin Cooper.
