CPL MATCHES MOVED FROM THE UNITED STATES

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – None of this year’s Caribbean Premier League games will be held in the United States, due to a poor turn-out of spectators.

This was revealed during a media conference on Friday by CPL chief operating officer Pete Russell, who said poor crowd support was the reason for the change to the competition which begins in September.

During the 2018 CPL, three games were played at the Central Broward Regional Stadium in the city of Fort Lauderdale in Florida.

In addition, teams can only pick five international players this year and can only play four in their starting line-ups.

Russell said the decision to chop the number of international players allowed in each team was in an effort to maintain the “Caribbean-ness” of the tournament.

The additional two players allowed last year will come from a West Indies development squad. The development squad is to be chosen by the Cricket West Indies selection panel.

In keeping with the idea of pushing development, at least one of those players will have to be part of any starting line-up the franchises choose.

This year, the CPL will bowl off in September for the first time.

Russell said with the WINDIES set to host India between during July and August, the move to push back the competition was to ensure the availability of all West Indian players.

“The September month allows us a clean window of action because we want all of our West Indian stars available,” he said.

Source: CMC