Antigua Hawksbills will not field a team for 2015, meaning six teams to compete for the Champions crown, currently held by the Barbados Tridents
Sunday 1st February 2015 – Kingston, Jamaica: With the CPL Draft 2015 fast approaching, each of the six franchises participating in this year’s tournament has retained the maximum number of four players from the 2014 squads. The newly-formed St. Kitts and Nevis franchise will be taking over the players from the Antigua Hawksbills franchise, which will not be fielding a team for the 2015 season.
The selections of the six teams have been much anticipated, further adding to the excitement of the upcoming Draft, which takes place this Thursday 5th February in Kingston, Jamaica. Of the 24 retained players, 22 come from the Caribbean, with the big guns, Gayle, Pollard, Narine, Bravo and Sammy all retained. The two retained international players are England’s Kevin Pietersen, and Pakistan’s, Shoaib Malik.
The St. Kitts and Nevis team will take over responsibility for the players from the Leeward Islands and has been permitted to retain any player who played for the Antigua Hawksbills during the 2014 season. Whilst it is disappointing that the Antigua Hawksbills will not be part of CPL 2015, it is hoped that the team will return for future tournaments.
CPL Operations Director, Michael Hall, said; “Looking at the list of retained players, you will see the strategy has been to retain the local stars. It will make for an absorbing draft as the heavyweight international players become available for selection. We are all excited to see how the squads shape up and no doubt there will be a few surprises when the coaches choose their picks on Thursday evening in Kingston.”
The full list of retained players for CPL 2015 is as follows:
Barbados Tridents
Guyana Amazon Warriors
Jamaica Tallawahs
St. Kitts and Nevis [team yet to be named]
St. Lucia Zouks
Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel
Kieron Pollard
Sunil Narine
Chris Gayle
Carlos Brathwaite
Darren Sammy
Dwayne Bravo
Shoaib Malik
Lendl Simmons
Andre Russell
Devon Thomas
Kevin Pietersen
Darren Bravo
Dwayne Smith
Denesh Ramdin
Jerome Taylor
Orlando Peters
Johnson Charles
Samuel Badree
Ravi Rampaul
Christopher Barnwell
Chadwick Walton
Justin Athanaze
Andre Fletcher
Kevin Cooper