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The Hero Caribbean Pre­mier League (CPL) un­for­tu­nate­ly came to an end last Sun­day with, as I pre­dict­ed, the Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers (TKR) win­ning the ti­tle com­fort­ably from the Guyana Ama­zon War­riors (GAW).

Let’s try and look back on the per­for­mances of the teams in this tour­na­ment and see just how West In­dies crick­et is ben­e­fit­ting from the CPL.

TKR was eas­i­ly the best team. Im­por­tant­ly for them, the in­ter­na­tion­al play­ers con­tin­ue to per­form with dis­tinc­tion. Col­in Munro con­tin­ues to de­fy the odds and some­how wins "Play­er of the Tour­na­ment" and scores the most runs when there are big­ger name play­ers in the com­pe­ti­tion.

Look at the rest of the in­ter­na­tion­al line up that per­formed su­perbly - Bren­don Mc­Cul­lum: 343 runs, Ali Khan: 16 wick­ets, Fawad Ahmed: 22 wick­ets, then the lo­cals in Dar­ren Bra­vo, Khary Pierre, De­nesh Ramdin and Sunil Nar­ine.

It ap­pears that the TKR fran­chise looks af­ter their play­ers and treats them like fam­i­ly. A play­er will per­form if he feels want­ed and cared for. As a fran­chise, TKR wins sim­ply be­cause their play­ers pos­sess a no­table pas­sion which the oth­ers don’t seem to have.

Guyana Ama­zon War­riors lost their cap­tain Shoaib Ma­lik ear­ly in the tour­na­ment which some­what weak­ened their bat­ting.

How­ev­er, young Shim­ron Het­my­er was bril­liant and if this young man puts his act to­geth­er and works hard at his game, he will be a bril­liant crick­eter. He still has some ba­sic faults to cor­rect but at 21 years old, he is one for the fu­ture of West In­dies crick­et. I al­so like the look of young Sher­fane Ruther­ford and I hope he can set­tle down and play the longer ver­sion of the game.

Few players in the world relish the spotlight more than Trinbago Knight Riders captain Dwayne Bravo. An energetic all-rounder by day and DJ Bravo by night, the 34 year old does not shun the bright lights at all. TKR owe much of their stability to Bravo who is the only captain in Caribbean Premier League (CPL) history to stay with the same franchise since inception.

This year has arguably been one of the most difficult for Bravo who has struggled badly with the ball. Normally a leading wicket-taker in the tournament, Bravo still finished with 13 wickets but went at an astronomical economy rate of 10.64 runs per over. No player in the tournament who bowled more than 14 overs – Bravo bowled 49 – was more expensive than the Trinidadian.

Maligned on social media, Bravo, was unwavering in self confidence as all captains should be and stayed true to himself to win his third CPL title.

As a fran­chise, TKR wins sim­ply be­cause their play­ers pos­sess a no­table pas­sion which the oth­ers don’t seem to have.

crap

It is no secret that the Trinbago Knight Riders are the gold standard for franchises in the CPL. Since being taken over by Red Chillies Entertainment – owners of Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League – TKR have raised the bar on what professionalism means and become the first CPL team to win back-to-back titles.

While it seems other CPL franchises are selecting overseas players based on "name", TKR are in the trenches digging for rough diamonds and using the latest data to build their squad. The other CPL franchises are playing catch-up and TKR are well ahead of the game in terms of a structure that makes it easier for them to succeed.