There has long been a call for a Regional T20 tournament to be played outside of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), and it appears as though cricket pundits around the Region will see that wish come true next year.
This was revealed on Monday by Cricket West Indies (CWI) Director of Cricket, Miles Bascombe, as he shared a plight of needing another way to find the Caribbean’s next generation of stars during a press briefing in Barbados.
“We also recognize, in terms of T20 cricket, that we need a way to find our next crop of T20 players. We have had success in T20 cricket, and I’m sure that the Head Coach is anticipating some more success when we play at home at this World Cup. But we generally still have to work hard at finding our next crop of T20 stars,” the CWI Director of Cricket shared.
Talents like Kevin Sinclair are among those that came through the CPL Emerging Players’ programme
Bascombe later shared that CWI would be collaborating with the Republic Bank CPL on a project that would feature under-23 players. He disclosed, “There is some recognition that the CPL may not necessarily be where those stars would emerge. So, we are working with CPL to have an Emerging Players’ Regional T20 Tournament that we are trying to have in May of next year. So, that is something we can look forward to.”
The tournament is all part of CWI’s efforts to ensure there is a bridging of the gap between the under-23 and senior levels, which Bascombe described as having a ‘leakage’.
Matthew Nandu is another product of the CPL Emerging Players’ programme
“For the men’s (teams), I think we are almost where we want to be. We have players coming into the system formally at around the under-15 level, so that picks up very talented players at 12, but generally from about 13 years; and we have structured for those players at least a regional tournament all the way through under-19s,” Bascombe enlightened.
He added, “We have recognized (that in) the under-23 level, we still have leakages of talent at that age group, and we are working to ensure that we have a programme that helps to capture those players.”
The CPL has been the only regional T20 tournament in the Caribbean in more than a decade, but carries an Emerging Player clause wherein two under-23 players are selected and utilised by each team every year.
