BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - TEAMS in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) are already shaping their squads for this year’s tournament, and defending Champions, the St. Kitts-Nevis Patriots, have retained the services of Dwayne Bravo, Sheldon Cottrell and Sherfane Rutherford ahead of the draft.
The 2021 tournament saw the Patriots winning its first title and doing so on home soil, as the entire tournament was played at the Warner Park Stadium.
This year’s tournament is set to bowl off on August 30, and all six teams have confirmed their pre-draft retentions and signings of local players for this season’s event.
According to the organisers, there were two pre-draft windows for the 2022 season. In the first window, each team could retain up to five Caribbean players with a maximum of two from the top five salary spots.
In the second window, teams are given an opportunity to sign two more local players. These could be new signings from those who were not retained by other teams or players who appeared for that team in the previous season.
In addition to the three, the Patriots were able to retain spinner Dominic Drake and also sign Darren Bravo from the Trinbago Knight Riders and Andre Fletcher from the St. Lucia Kings.
The inclusion of Fletcher highlights that the Patriots will likely be changing its opening combination and fortifying its batting as it likely that they will be without the services of Chris Gayle; and the fact that they will likely face challenging conditions in the latter parts of the tournament at the Providence Stadium where conditions will be slow and favouring spinners.
Meanwhile, CPL also announced that the Jamaica Tallawahs have retained three players from the squad in 2021 - their captain Rovman Powell and their two leading run scorers from last season, Kennar Lewis and Shamarh Brooks.
The Tallawahs have signed two new players with Jamaicans Brandon King and Fabian Allen joining the team for the 2022 season. King was with the Guyana Amazon Warriors last year while Allen was with champions St. Kitts & Nevis Patriots.
The 2021 runners-up, the Saint Lucia Kings, have retained last year’s Man of the Tournament, Roston Chase, along with Kesrick Williams, Jeavor Royal and Alzarri Joseph.
The signings for the Kings are local boy Johnson Charles, who joins them from the Barbados Royals, and Mark Deyal, who re- signs having been with the Kings in 2021.
The Barbados Royals have retained their 2021 captain, Jason Holder, along with Kyle Mayers, Hayden Walsh, Oshane Thomas and Nyeem Young.
The Royals’ signings are Devon Thomas, who joins them from the Patriots, and Obed McCoy, who was with the Kings in 2021.
The Guyana Amazon Warriors have retained Shimron Hetmyer, Odean Smith, Romario Shepherd and Chandrapaul Hemraj. Their signings see Keemo Paul rejoining his home franchise after a spell with the Kings in 2021, and Gudakesh Motie, who was with the franchise last season.
