We all hate to see the turmoil that West Indies cricket has been going through over the last few years – currently 9th in the ICC ODI Rankings, 8th in the Test Rankings and 5th in the T20I Rankings, even though they are the only team to have won the World T20 title twice.

However, there’s one thing that West Indies cricket fans can look forward to once every year, and that is their premier T20 tournament – the Hero Caribbean Premier League. Probably not as highly rated as the IPL or the Big Bash but I can guarantee you that the CPL T20 is the most entertaining T20 league around the world.

Dates: 4th August to 9th September 2017.

Format

Six teams take part in the Caribbean Premier League and the tournament is divided into a league stage and a play-off stage. Each of the 6 teams will place 10 games throughout the round robin stage and the top four qualify for the play-offs. That stage will then include one qualifying play-off, two eliminators and the mega finale – 9th September 2017.

Still a mighty ‘risk‘, but the starting segment of the 2017 CPL will be played at the Central Broward Stadium, Lauderhill, Florida, USA. This is a part of an effort to promote the sport in USA as the CPL now has 5 contracted USA cricketers. They have also given the USA national team a chance to play two warm-up games on 2nd and 3rd August – against St Kitts & Nevis Patriots and then against the Jamaica Tallawahs.

Eye on Cricket: Reflections on the Great Game

Read Scoops CPL 2017 — **Image source – espncricinfo.com**

Teams

Barbados Tridents
Jamaica Tallawahs
St Kitts & Nevis Patriots
Guyana Amazon Warriors
Trinbago Knight Riders
St Lucia Zouks

History

4 previous editions of the Caribbean Premier League have been completed and the Jamaica Tallawahs are the most successful team of the tournament so far, having won the title twice in 2013 and 2016, making them the defending champions in the 5th edition.

The Trinbago franchise also won the title once (2015) under a different ownership while the Barbados Tridents won in 2014. Guyana Amazon Warriors have been the most unlucky team, having reached the finals on three occasions but failing to put up a good performance in even one final.

West Indies Tour of England

You may think this is a poorly scheduled event, with West Indies currently on tour to England. However, this is all a part of the WICB bringing their international cricket back on track. Those who are selected for the test series will miss the starting of the T20 league while the limited overs players will leave later.

The West Indies tour has already begun, with their first warm up game against Essex and the tour including 3 tests, 1 T20I and 5 ODIs will go on until 29th September 2017. Already having a lot of foreign talent, several Pakistan players have been added to the rosters, along with the Mohammad Nabi-Rashid Khan Afghanistan duo!

The likes of Kieran Powell & Raymon Reifer will miss out due to international commitments while the likes of Jesse Ryder & Mitchell McClenaghan will be signed for the first time at the CPL. I am personally looking forward to see Ryder after a very long time.