ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – Two-time Caribbean Pre­mier League (CPL) cham­pi­ons Bar­ba­dos Roy­als have trad­ed Ja­son Hold­er and Al­ick Athanaze to the St Kitts & Nevis Pa­tri­ots in a move that will see Sher­fane Ruther­ford join the Roy­als for this year’s tour­na­ment.

The block­buster trade was an­nounced on Tues­day in a press re­lease by the CPL, with the Roy­als opt­ing for a ma­jor shake­up ahead of next month’s CPL draft.

Both teams will be hop­ing to im­prove on their per­for­mances in the 2024 edi­tion, where the Pa­tri­ots fin­ished last with just one win from 10 games, while Roy­als were elim­i­nat­ed in the play­offs by the Guyana Ama­zon War­riors.

Hold­er’s de­par­ture brings an end to his era with the Roy­als, which he has rep­re­sent­ed since the CPL be­gan in 2013 and won two cham­pi­onships with in 2014 and 2019.

As part of the deal, the 26-year-old Athanaze, who led the Wind­ward Is­lands In­fer­nos in the re­cent­ly con­clud­ed West In­dies Break­out League, and who played for the Pa­tri­ots in 2023 and 2024, was al­so trad­ed.

The Roy­als will be boost­ed by the ad­di­tion of Ruther­ford, who is cur­rent­ly play­ing in the In­di­an Pre­mier League for the Gu­jarat Ti­tans.

It will be his third CPL fran­chise, hav­ing rep­re­sent­ed the Pa­tri­ots for the last four sea­sons and Ama­zon War­riors from 2018 to 2020.

The 2025 Re­pub­lic Bank CPL will run from Au­gust 14 to Sep­tem­ber 21, with match­es sched­uled across six Caribbean na­tions: An­tigua & Bar­bu­da, Bar­ba­dos, Guyana, St Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lu­cia, and Trinidad & To­ba­go.

CMC