The Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) is on for 2021 and over the next few weeks, teams are expected to release their list of retained players, leading up to the May 26 date, tentatively set, for the CPL players’ draft.
In anticipating the list of players who will represent local franchise Guyana Amazon Warriors, Guyana Times Sport was able to ascertain some of the faces that will feature in this year’s line-up.
According to a team source, Guyana’s Shimron Hetmyer has been enlisted for another year with the local setup, while 2019 Marquee Player Nicholas Pooran and international pick Imran Tahir will stay for another season with the Warriors.
In the 2020 CPL season, where the Warriors made it to the semi-final round, Hetmyer averaged 33.37, accumulating 267 runs with a high score of 71.
Smashing his first CPL century in the last season, Pooran averaged 27.22 and ended the 11-match run with 245 runs.
Nicholas Pooran
Tahir has been a valuable asset to GAW’s bowling department over the years, playing 32 games for the team from 2018 to 2020, while averaging 15.31 with an economy of 5.80. To date, the South African has picked up 47 wickets with best figures of 4-22.
Additionally, according to the source, there are at least four other Guyanese being retained, alongside a handful from other Caribbean territories.
The Trinbago Knight Riders were the first team to sign and retain players for the 2021 season. TKR have agreed to trade veteran all-rounder Dwayne Bravo for Denesh Ramdin with the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots while retaining 12 other players last week.
Imran Tahir
The remaining teams are expected to release their lists over the next few weeks, leading up to the players’ draft. However, the GAW list is expected to come sooner rather than later.
Giving a hint of what to expect from the draft and movement of players, Hero CPL Chief Operations Officer (COO) Pete Russell hinted that there would be quite a few surprises in store.
“I can assure everyone that there’s been quite a lot of movement in terms of some of the teams during the closed season, so there’ll be one or two surprises when we come to the draft,” Russell said at the venue announcement on April 27.
