A brilliant bowling spell from Akeal Hosein saw Trinbago Knight Riders kick off their 2022 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) campaign with a victory over last year’s finalists, Saint Lucia Kings, by three wickets.
The Knight Riders won the toss and chose to field, Hosein taking frequent wickets to restrict Saint Lucia Kings to 143/9, despite some big hitting from batter Roshon Primus towards the end of the innings.
Trinbago Knight Riders got off to a tough start themselves, losing two early wickets before a commanding innings from Tion Webster (58) helped to guide them to victory with four balls to spare.
Guyana Amazon Warriors have made it to the knockouts of all nine editions of the CPL so far but have never won the title.
This season, they have a chance to break that jinx and clinch their first trophy, in front of their home crowd. The prospect of Guyana hosting the CPL final for the first time has raised the expectations of the fans.
The tournament being played just one month out from the next T20 World Cup has raised the jeopardy for the players. But Shimron Hetmyer, Amazon Warriors’ new captain, is letting none of that cloud his mind.
“I actually see it as a challenge and I relish challenges,” Hetmyer said during a virtual media interaction. “Want to really perform and do the best for my team because I know once I do half of my best or even my best, we will get there to a decent score more times than not. So, it’s really for me to focus on how I go about doing that and how I go about setting up an innings and just being out in the crease for as long as possible and not thinking too far ahead to the World Cup.
“I’m very excited, actually, it [captaincy] is something I was really looking forward to, to be honest. It’s something that I could learn a lot from, in terms of managing my innings, how to look after the team and be a little bit more of a team player than just trying to basically hit sixes and fours. I’m trying to do as much as I can in terms of being the captain and trying to help out as much as I can and just being there for the team.”
With just about seven months left remaining on Ricky Skerrit’s second two-year term as Cricket West Indies (CWI) president, this would be as good a time as any to assess his tenure. Extremely disappointing would arguably have to be the fairest possible verdict of any such assessment.
Skerritt’s initial March 2019 appointment to the presidency, as Dave Cameron’s replacement, had been greeted with widespread optimism throughout the Caribbean. The prevailing hope was that after six years of Cameron’s at times overly autocratic rule, Skerritt’s breath-of-fresh-air presidency would herald the implementation of policies, procedures and practices that would have resulted in better on-field performances by West Indies teams in all three of international cricket’s current formats.
As president, however, Skerritt’s major focus has instead seemingly been on restoring CWI’s finances from its previous perilous state of reported near bankruptcy into a now far more healthy state. For the outstanding successes he’s achieved in that endeavour he must now be overly applauded.
The Trinbago Knight Riders Women edged to victory by the barest of margins beating the Barbados Royals Women by one run in a nail-biting first game of the inaugural Massy Women’s Caribbean Premier League (WCPL).
Having won the toss and elected to bat, the Knight Riders got off to a flyer, but lost regular wickets meaning they finished 114/7 thanks to a late flurry from Hayley Jensen and a well-fought 30 from Lee-Ann Kirby at the top.
Shakera Selman and Hayley Matthews were the pick of the Royals’ bowlers taking two apiece and Matthews claimed bragging rights by dismissing her counterpart, Deandra Dottin.
new look Jamaica Tallawahs got their 2022 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) campaign off to a winning start with a 47-run victory over the defending champions, St Kitts & Nevis Patriots.
The Patriots won the toss and opted to field first but the decision backfired as a sparkling 89 off 57 balls from Brandon King led the way for the Tallawahs who set an imposing 183/2 from their 20 overs.
