After a bumper first year, the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) is cutting back for the second edition and some teams may not even have a manager.
Mere weeks before the start of the tournament, cost cutting seems to be the order of the day, to make the league viable.
Players will be paid their salary as was determined during the draft but their per diem has been cut from US$70 per day to US$50 per day. Last year, all 15 members of each team were allowed a single room at hotels during game but now six players will have to share three rooms, with the others getting single rooms. It will be left up to the management of each team to decide who gets what type of accommodation.
With only one team having an owner and that being the Guyana Amazon Warriors, the others are expected to undergo some serious cost cutting, which may see no role for a manager or trainer. It is understood that the role of manager will be taken up by a travelling liaison officer.
Lycamobile, the owners of the T&T Red Steel, has ended their relationship with the team, so too the owners of the St Lucia Zouks. It is understood that there is an effort to have the Red Steel bought and information on this will be revealed soon.
The owners of the Red Steel lost a total of US$1.2M during the first year and this forced them to look elsewhere. They notified the organisers of the tournament, Verus International, that they will look at some other arrangement but it is yet to be revealed.
The asking price for the Red Steel for this year's tournament is US$2M and the organisers will be hoping that someone comes forward with the cash.
What has been a stumbling block so far is the fact that the Red Steel has only three home games where potential owners can get a return on their investment. They would have hoped for more games in order to cash in.
Last year, the winners of the tournament, the Jamaica Tallulahs, got a first prize of US$250,000. The winner of each match during the tournament pocketed US$25,000.
There is no information to date as to what will be the bonus, if any, for winning a match and what will be the first prize.
This year the tournament will bowl off on July 11 in Grenada and the finals weekend will take place in St Kitts.
Last year's runners-up, the Guyana Amazon Warriors, take on the Antigua Hawksbills, with two of the world's finest spinners, Sunil Narine and Saeed Ajmal, going head-to-head.