St Kitts & Nevis Patriots have had to rejig their backroom staffers' line-up just two weeks before CPL 2020 after Simon Helmot, their head coach, and Malolan Rangarajan, the assistant coach, were forced to miss the tournament for different reasons. The franchise has brought in former West Indies captain Courtney Walsh and Mark O'Donnell from New Zealand, who had worked together with Jamaica Tallawahs in 2015, to fill the gaps.
Helmot tested positive for Covid-19 on July 27, the day he was to fly out of Melbourne to the Caribbean, while Rangarajan is a talent scout at Royal Challengers Bangalore, and is expected to be involved in the team's pre-season camp in the UAE from the end of August. Rangarajan will, however, continue to assist the Patriots remotely as a strategic consultant.
Current CPL guidelines require all players and support staff to clear Covid-19 tests before they fly out to the Caribbean and fulfil a two-week quarantine period in Trinidad & Tobago, where the entire season will be played.
Jamaica Tallawahs CEO Jeff Miller said batsman Andre McCarthy is devastated that he will not be able to play in the 2020 CPL season that begins in Trinidad later this month.
McCarthy, 33, and 21-year-old Jeavor Royal, a slow, left-arm spinner will both miss this season after they were exposed to someone who had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus just days before they were to depart for Trinidad on Monday.
According to Miller, who was in his first day of a 14-day quarantine period at his hotel in Trinidad, said he was disappointed that the players will not be in the squad but the health and safety of the other players had to be protected.
He explained McCarthy and Royal had tested negative for the virus and would have to take another test in seven days. However, by then it would be too late as there are no commercial flights going into Trinidad.
Australia's T20 series against the West Indies in early October has officially been postponed, the latest cricketing casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic that has created chaos with the international schedule.
The Windies had been scheduled to play matches in Townsville, Cairns and the Gold Coast on October 4, 6 and 9 respectively, with the series to act as a warm-up for the Men's T20 World Cup, which was scheduled to start on October 18.
But with World Cup postponed last month due to the pandemic, and with both Australia and the Windies wanting the series to coincide with a rescheduled World Cup in Australia in 2021 or 2022, the short T20 campaign has also been put on hold.
The leading T20 players from both countries are instead set to play in the rescheduled Indian Premier League, which will run from September 19 to November 10.
Cricket West Indies president Ricky Skerritt says he has not made a decision on who to support for International Cricket Council (ICC) Chairman just yet despite stories suggesting he would, at the very least, not be supporting the bid of his predecessor, Dave Cameron
Speaking on Antigua Observer Radio show, ‘Good Morning Jojo’, Skerritt said he had not responded positively or negatively to a letter from Cameron because it did not seek a response.
“[…] we received a letter from my predecessor which, in effect, he said the letter speaks for itself and he said, looking forward to your support. Nowhere did the letter ask for anything,” said Skerritt.
Skerritt was referring to claims from Cameron that he sent a letter requesting that the CWI support him in his bid for chairman of the ICC, in effect offering him as a candidate the organization nominates.
est Indies white-ball captain Kieron Pollard will continue to lead Trinbago Knight Riders for the upcoming CPL season.
Pollard had been named Knight Riders' replacement captain after regular captain Dwayne Bravo was sidelined from the entire CPL 2019 with an injury. After captaining Knight Riders to the playoffs - they were beaten by eventual champions Barbados Tridents in the second qualifier - Pollard took over as the captain of West Indies' ODI and T20I sides.
It was Bravo who had led Knight Riders to back-to-back title victories in 2017 and 2018, but, according to Venky Mysore, the CEO of the team as well as Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, Bravo wasn't keen to lead the side earlier too, and instead wanted to focus on his career as a player.
"We are happy that Kieron who is the West Indies captain is our leader at TKR," Mysore was quoted as saying by Trinidad & Tobago Guardian. "The champion DJ Bravo has been coming to me year after year and asking me to give someone else the captaincy because he wants to just concentrate on playing and enjoying the game. I always told him not until I am ready and that time has come and he is very happy to play under Pollard."
