The Hero Caribbean Premier League has announced a number of changes to its player draft format for 2016 which will once again see some of the world’s greatest T20 players join the “Biggest Party in Sport”.
The new rules have allowed the six franchise teams to sign one “marquee” player as a free agent before the draft process begins. Over the last two months the teams have been in negotiations with the best players in world cricket and will be announcing their marquee stars in the first few weeks of the New Year.
The number of players that the franchises can retain before the player draft has been reduced from four to three whilst the squad size increases from 16 to 17 for the new season.
Former Australia captain Ian Chappell has described the decision as a “monumental blunder” while former Windies pacer Andy Roberts has suggested Holder step down from the position to salvage his career.
MELBOURNE—West Indies team management have rejected media reports here that they have banned noted Trinidadian journalist Fazeer Mohammed from conducting player interviews.
Several news outlets reported Monday that the experienced Mohammed, currently attached to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) commentary team for the three-Test tour, had been blacklisted over recent comments he made which were critical of the embattled Windies.
However, in a media release late Monday, the Windies team management said that no member of ABC’s commentary team had been barred from conducting interviews with players.
Leeward Islands Cricket Association (LICA) presidency candidate and former national cricketer Enoch Lewis said if elected at the body’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) slated for January 5 in St Kitts, he will immediately implement plans that could salvage the team’s dismal season thus far.
Leeward Islands finished at the bottom of the table in the four-day competition with 13 points, all of which are bowling points.
“We have been a disaster over the first half of the four-day competition and I believe that we can salvage some of that. We can’t continue along this road so one of the things I would want to do after I get elected is that I want to interview all of the players and all of the stakeholders around the team,” he said.
Slowly but surely, Australia worked their way through the West Indies for a victory that kept the Frank Worrell Trophy in their possession for 20 unbroken years, stretching back to the triumph of Mark Taylor's team in the Caribbean in 1995.
Having fought hard over the final two days of the Test, West Indies lost their final four wickets for 32 in ten overs, allowing Steven Smith's team to enjoy success inside four days after they declared before play began to set Jason Holder's men a target of 460.
With the benefit of more time in Australia, the visitors put up a better show than they managed in Hobart, though the hosts were never in any danger of losing the match. It was more a question of time, and Holder was despondent at a checked drive to mid-off that opened up the tail to the second new ball with a handful of overs remaining in the day.
