Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) have decided to keep the core of their team for this year's Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Twenty20 (T20) cricket tournament, should it come off. The tournament is carded to begin August 19 with a clash between TKR and St Kitts and Nevis Patriots at the Queen's Park Oval in Port-of-Spain.
Recently, Chief Operations Officer (C00) of CPL Pete Russell stated that with the COVID-19 pandemic going on, the start is not confirmed but they are hoping to get the tournament off as soon as they get the all-clear from Cricket West Indies (CWI).
He said that CPL will be working with the board to get a window for the tournament, hoping that it does not clash with the Indian Premier League (IPL). He added that if the tournament does not start in August, it can start in September, if not it can be played in December.
Meanwhile, a source from India where the team owners are based revealed to Guardian Media Sports on Tuesday that the Knight Riders brand will be sticking with the core of the players who participated in the team at the 2019 tournament.
"We are going to keep the usual suspects around, which means that in addition to Dwayne Bravo, we will retain 2019 captain Kieron Pollard. We are going to stick with the likes of Sunil Narine, Lendl Simmons, and Darren Bravo."
Pollard played for the TKR for the first time last year and he replaced injured skipper Dwayne Bravo. All-rounder Bravo got a hand injury just days before the tournament that ruled him out completely. The TKR, the most successful franchise in the history of the CPL with three titles, got knocked out in the semi-finals of the 2019 tournament by eventual champions Barbados Tridents.
Russell said that it is very possible that the CPL may be played this year without foreign players. Our source was non-committal on this saying: "At this point in time the owners have been kept abreast of all developments but it is still early days. We have heard of this move but we cannot really comment on that at the moment. We need to play out this situation and see how best we can have a tournament staged." (VM)