Veteran West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo has rated the current squad of players as better overall than past T20 World Cup-winning teams.
Under the captaincy of Darren Sammy and with the likes of Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Kieron Pollard, and Dwayne Smith the West Indies captured the world titles at the 2010 and 2016 editions. The current set-up, while having some of the same players who played in the previous edition, like Pollard and including Bravo, mostly consists of a new generation of West Indies talent.
Bravo, who was recently recalled to the team, admits that the most impressive aspect of the new guns is a deep and talented batting line-up, which interestingly is absent top T20 batsman Chris Gayle.
“In the last series in Sri Lanka, we had a team meeting, and coach Phil [Simmons] put the team down, the list, and he put it down in batting order, and he had my name down at No. 9," Bravo said in a recent interview with Espn.
"And I said to the guys, I said listen, I don't think I was ever involved in a T20 team when I am down to bat at No. 9,” he added.
The Barbados Tridents have announced the Caribbean players they will be retaining for the 2020 Hero Caribbean Premier League. International retentions and signings will be announced at a later date. This year teams can retain as many players from their 2019 squads as they wish. They could also transfer players to other teams and sign emerging players.
The Tridents have chosen to retain or sign nine Caribbean players ahead of the CPL draft including the exciting all-rounder Nyeem Young as one of their emerging players.
The Jamaica Tallawahs have wasted little time in finding a replacement for the ‘Universe Boss’ Chris Gayle, as they have snapped up the captain of the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, Carlos Brathwaite.
The Gleaner has been reliably informed that Barbadian Brathwaite is among five players that have been retained by the Tallawahs for the 2020 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) season, which is tentatively scheduled to bowl off in late August.
All-rounders Andrè Russell, Rovman Powell, wicketkeeper-batsman Chadwick Walton and fast bowler Oshane Thomas are, according to our sources, the other players retained by the two-time champions.
When The Gleaner reached out to Tallawahs CEO Jeff Miller for an opinion on the latest acquisition, he declined to comment on the report.
“I don’t have anything to say on the matter, please call the CPL and they will give you the list. At this time only they can release names,” Miller said.
The St Kitts & Nevis Patriots have announced the Caribbean players they will be retaining for the 2020 Hero Caribbean Premier League. International retentions and signings will be announced at a later date. This year teams can retain as many players from their 2019 squads as they wish. They could also transfer players to other teams and sign emerging players.
The Patriots have chosen to retain or sign seven Caribbean players ahead of the CPL draft, including signing Denesh Ramdin from the Trinbago Knight Riders:
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — Marquee stroke-maker Hayley Matthews has urged authorities to increase the number of regional tournaments in order to accelerate the development of the women's game.
“I think we need more regional cricket —over the past couple of years we haven't had much,” said the 22-year-old.
“When we do have our regional cricket each year, it's usually two, three weeks of a tournament. We try to squeeze a 50-over tournament and a T20 tournament within that [period] and obviously that's not adequate enough for us to be growing as cricketers.”
Cricket West Indies (CWI) stages the Super50 Cup and the T20 Blaze as the premier women's domestic tournaments yearly, with both tournaments played during the same period.
Last year, six teams —Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Leeward Islands, Windward Islands and hosts Guyana—contested five rounds in each format.
