The 2021 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) will take place in St Kitts & Nevis in its entirety, with all 33 games being played in the Federation. The tournament will get underway on 28 August with a similar format of games that worked so successfully in 2020 and delivered a record audience of over 500 million.
Last year the tournament was successfully staged in a bio-secure bubble and the Hero CPL operations team will again be working closely with the tournament’s medical advisors, local agencies and the St Kitts & Nevis government to ensure the health and safety of all those involved in the tournament as well as the local population. St Kitts & Nevis has no COVID-19 transmission and is one of the safest places to visit in the Caribbean.
Warner Park has been the scene of some of the most iconic matches in Hero CPL history and this quick scoring ground will be an ideal venue for the tournament and fans can expect explosive cricket. From Chris Gayle’s brilliant hundred against the Jamaica Tallawahs in 2019 to Andre Russell’s even more explosive century against the Trinbago Knight Riders in 2016, Warner Park has had some classic individual performances. There have also been some amazing matches, not least the game that went to a Super Over finish between the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots and the Knight Riders in 2019.
West Indies Women will not be allowed to compete as a team at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Instead, a regional Qualifying tournament to determine which island will compete at the Games will have to be staged by Cricket West Indies (CWI). Under the International Cricket Council (ICC), West Indies compete as a single entity but the Games is not an ICC-organised event. Ten sovereign states make up the West Indies, plus a number of British, Dutch and American overseas territories, meaning the team itself is not eligible to appear at the Commonwealth Games, but many of the constituent countries are.
With West Indies unable to compete as one entity, this year’s T20 Blaze – the Cricket West Indies women’s domestic championship – will determine the country which joins the several global powerhouses. CWI last hosted the T20 Blaze in 2019 when Barbados emerged winners in the tournament staged in Guyana. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic wiped out all domestic women’s cricket in the Caribbean last year and has continued to keep a question mark over the hosting of the T20 Blaze this year.
With women’s cricket not overly strong in the individual islands, as compared to those countries which have qualified such as England and India, the chances of the team eventually chosen from the Caribbean are expected to be considerably weakened.
Cricket, which is the first discipline to announce qualifying teams for the Games, is making a landmark re-entry to the prestigious multi-sport event that is scheduled for July 28 to August 8 next year.
Jamaica Scorpions Head Coach, Andre Coley, says he welcomes the Jamaican Government's latest approval for cricket training as local players prepare for upcoming competition..
Earlier this month, the Jamaica Cricket Association received the Government's permission to host international cricket matches and stage training sessions while participants adhere to strict health protocols to reduce the risk of spreading the novel coronavirus.
Under previous guidelines, each Scorpions' training session was limited to groups of three to four players which impacted their preparation for the regional Super50 Cup in February. But Coley said the limit has now increased to 10, giving the coaching staff the opportunity to better replicate match scenarios in training.
“When we were just returning to training months ago the guidelines required us to use smaller numbers. Now it is probably easier for us to do anything that is close to a game simulation type of training. The gathering limit is 15 people, so when we look at it we can have around 10 players plus the support staff,” Coley told the Jamaica Observer during a telephone interview yesterday.
Cricket West Indies (CWI) says it plans to aggressively continue rolling back debt and streamlining its financial practices, in an ambitious bid to realise profits by 2023 and place the organisation on sound commercial footing.
An audited financial statement for last year shows losses of over US$13 million (J$1.9 billion) and prompted auditors KPMG to “cast significant doubt on the company’s ability to continue as a going concern”. CWI Chief Executive Johnny Grave said it was critical that the board remained prudent in managing costs by adhering to initiatives already in place.
He said the CWI had already managed to reduce borrowing, and while the COVID-19 pandemic continues to present unprecedented financial challenges, it was hoped that within the next two and a half years the organisation could be in a sustainable position.
“Making good choices about our investments and how much money we spend, having really good control over our costs [will be key to improving CWI’s finances],” Grave said.
PRESIDENT of Cricket West Indies (CWI) Ricky Skerritt is “praying and hoping” that South Africa will still tour the Caribbean in the coming months after hearing the news that South Africa sports minister Nathi Mthethwa has taken over the running of Cricket South Africa (CSA), making that country’s tour of the Caribbean in jeopardy.
According to a Reuters article, “A Special General Meeting was held last Saturday (April 17) where it was expected that the Members Council (of CSA) would achieve the 75 per cent majority vote in favour of a change to the Memorandum of Incorporation, but instead, only six unions were in favour, while three abstained.
“I have decided to invoke my powers...by de-funding and de-recognizing CSA‚” Mthethwa stated in a letter to CSA on Friday, said Reuters.
