Well, 'the biggest par­ty in sport' bowls off next Tues­day at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my (BLCA) in Tarou­ba, San Fer­nan­do. Yes, folks, the Caribbean Pre­mier League (CPL) T20 tour­na­ment is back but this year with­out the mu­sic, danc­ing, Tri­ni posse, Tas­sa, flags and most sig­nif­i­cant­ly - spec­ta­tors.

The CPL will just not be the same. We re­cent­ly wit­nessed the biose­cure Test se­ries be­tween Eng­land and the West In­dies and al­though there were no crowds at the venues, the crick­et was riv­et­ing but that is Test crick­et. While the play­ers would love to see the test grounds full, it is far dif­fer­ent when it comes to T20 crick­et. The play­ers thrive off of the adren­a­line from the at­mos­phere, the bound­aries, the catch­es, the wick­ets, the run outs and the fist-pump­ing from the play­ers re­al­ly makes it the biggest par­ty in sport. So, with no spec­ta­tors and some of the re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al stars not tak­ing part in the tour­na­ment, what can we ex­pect this year?

The sur­prise pack­age last year - the Bar­ba­dos Tri­dents - who came from an in­con­sis­tent 5 wins and 5 loss­es in the pre­lim­i­nary stage to win the tour­na­ment, must sure­ly feel they can record back to back wins. It was right here at the BLCA that they de­feat­ed the tour­na­ment favourites, the Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers (TKR), in the se­mi-fi­nal and took care of the pre­vi­ous­ly un­beat­en Guyana Ama­zon War­riors (GAW) in the fi­nal. I thought much of their suc­cess, in the end, was down to their tac­tics as they did their home­work to de­feat the big guns at the death. Look­ing at their squad, they seem stronger in the bowl­ing de­part­ment. Hay­den Walsh Jr. is back but this time he has with him Rashid Khan who is a world-class leg spin­ner. Tra­di­tion­al­ly, leg­gies have done well in the CPL and these two will be well-sup­port­ed by Mitchell Sant­ner, the left-arm or­tho­dox spin­ner, and Ash­ley Nurse who bowled well in Trinidad. The medi­um-fast bowlers in their line up will be steady but not spec­tac­u­lar. Their bat­ting is their con­cern and much will de­pend on John­son Charles, Shamarh Brooks, Shai Hope, and Jonathan Carter to get the runs but they will feel con­fi­dent to de­fend any to­tal.

What does one say about the brides­maid, the GAW? They played bril­liant­ly un­til the fi­nal night when every­thing col­lapsed around them. 26-year-old Chris Green will lead them this year and while the South African born Aus­tralian crick­eter is not by any means a world-class play­er, he gives 150% and will lead by ex­am­ple to in­spire his team. Un­like the Tri­dents, their bat­ting is their strength and any team with Shim­ron Het­my­er, Nicholas Pooran, Bran­don King and the steady Ross Tay­lor will cer­tain­ly feel they can chase any large to­tal. The sea­soned Im­ran Tahir will be their bowl­ing trump card.

TKR will be their usu­al com­pet­i­tive self. Again led by Kieron Pol­lard, they have man­aged to re­tain the ma­jor­i­ty of their 2019 squad and while the wick­et­keep­ing du­ties this year have gone to Tim Seifert (who has re­placed De­nesh Ramdin), they pos­sess a well-bal­anced team. They have se­cured the ser­vices of Fawad Ahmed who proves that there is no sub­sti­tute for a good work­ing 'old thing'. They bat deep and in ad­di­tion to Ahmed, they have the bowl­ing ar­moury to suit any type of bowl­ing con­di­tions.

Vet­er­an Trin­bag­on­ian Rayad Em­rit will lead the St Kitts & Nevis Pa­tri­ots and for me, they may very well be the dark horse in the tour­na­ment. They have some re­al in­di­vid­ual match-win­ners in this team. Evin Lewis will need to sparkle at the top of the or­der to­geth­er with the Aus­tralian pair of Chris Lynn and Ben Dunk with Ramdin guid­ing the mid­dle and low­er or­der. Shel­don Cot­trell and So­hail Tan­vir can make ear­ly in­roads in­to any bat­ting line up and if Ish Sod­hi can ac­cli­ma­tise ear­ly on, he can be among the wick­ets. Do not un­der­es­ti­mate this team.

St Lu­cia Zouks may strug­gle as they have lost some big play­ers in­clud­ing Chris Gayle be­fore the tour­na­ment start­ed. They have se­cured the ser­vices of the hard-hit­ting Na­jibul­lah Zad­ran and to­geth­er with An­dre Fletch­er, they will need to score runs con­sis­tent­ly to give the bowlers some­thing to de­fend. As a bowl­ing unit when one looks through their line­up, tal­ent is abun­dant but over the years, they have grown to throw in the tow­el when things are not go­ing their way. Dar­ren Sam­my will have to keep their spir­it up and get them to play crick­et to their max­i­mum po­ten­tial.

Last but not least is the Ja­maica Tallawahs. How can a team with so much tal­ent fin­ish at the bot­tom of the ta­ble in 2019? Ob­vi­ous­ly, it had to do with off the field an­tics as a few 'big name' play­ers seemed un­hap­py dur­ing the sea­son. Rov­man Pow­ell has been hand­ed the cap­tain's arm­band and if this team can fo­cus on play­ing crick­et, they could be up there with the top four. Any team with An­dre 'Su­per­man' Rus­sell in it is a threat. Sandeep Lamich­hane. with Rus­sell, will spear­head their at­tack but like TKR, this is a well-bal­anced team and can take the ti­tle mov­ing from last to first. Bat­ting wise, Glenn Phillips will be key, and if Jer­maine Black­wood bats in­tel­li­gent­ly, he can be ex­treme­ly dan­ger­ous.

With no spec­ta­tors, TKR will not have their 12th man this sea­son so it should even things out and with all the re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al play­ers in a “bub­ble” at the Hilton Ho­tel to be joined to­mor­row by the lo­cal play­ers, the ques­tion is who will hit the ground run­ning? The pitch­es will be slow be­cause of all the rain we have been hav­ing and the bats­men will have to ad­just quick­ly to suit the slow pitch­es.

My four? TKR, Ja­maica Tallawahs, Guyana Ama­zon War­riors and St Kitts and Nevis Pa­tri­ots but spec­ta­tors or no spec­ta­tors it will sure­ly be a great and com­pet­i­tive tour­na­ment. May the best team win. Good luck!

Ed­i­tor's note:

The views ex­pressed in this col­umn are sole­ly those of the au­thor and do not re­flect the views of any or­gan­i­sa­tion of which he is a stake­hold­er.

Well, 'the biggest par­ty in sport' bowls off next Tues­day at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my (BLCA) in Tarou­ba, San Fer­nan­do. Yes, folks, the Caribbean Pre­mier League (CPL) T20 tour­na­ment is back but this year with­out the mu­sic, danc­ing, Tri­ni posse, Tas­sa, flags and most sig­nif­i­cant­ly - spec­ta­tors.

The CPL will just not be the same. We re­cent­ly wit­nessed the biose­cure Test se­ries be­tween Eng­land and the West In­dies and al­though there were no crowds at the venues, the crick­et was riv­et­ing but that is Test crick­et. While the play­ers would love to see the test grounds full, it is far dif­fer­ent when it comes to T20 crick­et. The play­ers thrive off of the adren­a­line from the at­mos­phere, the bound­aries, the catch­es, the wick­ets, the run outs and the fist-pump­ing from the play­ers re­al­ly makes it the biggest par­ty in sport. So, with no spec­ta­tors and some of the re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al stars not tak­ing part in the tour­na­ment, what can we ex­pect this year?

The sur­prise pack­age last year - the Bar­ba­dos Tri­dents - who came from an in­con­sis­tent 5 wins and 5 loss­es in the pre­lim­i­nary stage to win the tour­na­ment, must sure­ly feel they can record back to back wins. It was right here at the BLCA that they de­feat­ed the tour­na­ment favourites, the Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers (TKR), in the se­mi-fi­nal and took care of the pre­vi­ous­ly un­beat­en Guyana Ama­zon War­riors (GAW) in the fi­nal. I thought much of their suc­cess, in the end, was down to their tac­tics as they did their home­work to de­feat the big guns at the death. Look­ing at their squad, they seem stronger in the bowl­ing de­part­ment. Hay­den Walsh Jr. is back but this time he has with him Rashid Khan who is a world-class leg spin­ner. Tra­di­tion­al­ly, leg­gies have done well in the CPL and these two will be well-sup­port­ed by Mitchell Sant­ner, the left-arm or­tho­dox spin­ner, and Ash­ley Nurse who bowled well in Trinidad. The medi­um-fast bowlers in their line up will be steady but not spec­tac­u­lar. Their bat­ting is their con­cern and much will de­pend on John­son Charles, Shamarh Brooks, Shai Hope, and Jonathan Carter to get the runs but they will feel con­fi­dent to de­fend any to­tal.

What does one say about the brides­maid, the GAW? They played bril­liant­ly un­til the fi­nal night when every­thing col­lapsed around them. 26-year-old Chris Green will lead them this year and while the South African born Aus­tralian crick­eter is not by any means a world-class play­er, he gives 150% and will lead by ex­am­ple to in­spire his team. Un­like the Tri­dents, their bat­ting is their strength and any team with Shim­ron Het­my­er, Nicholas Pooran, Bran­don King and the steady Ross Tay­lor will cer­tain­ly feel they can chase any large to­tal. The sea­soned Im­ran Tahir will be their bowl­ing trump card.

TKR will be their usu­al com­pet­i­tive self. Again led by Kieron Pol­lard, they have man­aged to re­tain the ma­jor­i­ty of their 2019 squad and while the wick­et­keep­ing du­ties this year have gone to Tim Seifert (who has re­placed De­nesh Ramdin), they pos­sess a well-bal­anced team. They have se­cured the ser­vices of Fawad Ahmed who proves that there is no sub­sti­tute for a good work­ing 'old thing'. They bat deep and in ad­di­tion to Ahmed, they have the bowl­ing ar­moury to suit any type of bowl­ing con­di­tions.

Vet­er­an Trin­bag­on­ian Rayad Em­rit will lead the St Kitts & Nevis Pa­tri­ots and for me, they may very well be the dark horse in the tour­na­ment. They have some re­al in­di­vid­ual match-win­ners in this team. Evin Lewis will need to sparkle at the top of the or­der to­geth­er with the Aus­tralian pair of Chris Lynn and Ben Dunk with Ramdin guid­ing the mid­dle and low­er or­der. Shel­don Cot­trell and So­hail Tan­vir can make ear­ly in­roads in­to any bat­ting line up and if Ish Sod­hi can ac­cli­ma­tise ear­ly on, he can be among the wick­ets. Do not un­der­es­ti­mate this team.

St Lu­cia Zouks may strug­gle as they have lost some big play­ers in­clud­ing Chris Gayle be­fore the tour­na­ment start­ed. They have se­cured the ser­vices of the hard-hit­ting Na­jibul­lah Zad­ran and to­geth­er with An­dre Fletch­er, they will need to score runs con­sis­tent­ly to give the bowlers some­thing to de­fend. As a bowl­ing unit when one looks through their line­up, tal­ent is abun­dant but over the years, they have grown to throw in the tow­el when things are not go­ing their way. Dar­ren Sam­my will have to keep their spir­it up and get them to play crick­et to their max­i­mum po­ten­tial.

Last but not least is the Ja­maica Tallawahs. How can a team with so much tal­ent fin­ish at the bot­tom of the ta­ble in 2019? Ob­vi­ous­ly, it had to do with off the field an­tics as a few 'big name' play­ers seemed un­hap­py dur­ing the sea­son. Rov­man Pow­ell has been hand­ed the cap­tain's arm­band and if this team can fo­cus on play­ing crick­et, they could be up there with the top four. Any team with An­dre 'Su­per­man' Rus­sell in it is a threat. Sandeep Lamich­hane. with Rus­sell, will spear­head their at­tack but like TKR, this is a well-bal­anced team and can take the ti­tle mov­ing from last to first. Bat­ting wise, Glenn Phillips will be key, and if Jer­maine Black­wood bats in­tel­li­gent­ly, he can be ex­treme­ly dan­ger­ous.

With no spec­ta­tors, TKR will not have their 12th man this sea­son so it should even things out and with all the re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al play­ers in a “bub­ble” at the Hilton Ho­tel to be joined to­mor­row by the lo­cal play­ers, the ques­tion is who will hit the ground run­ning? The pitch­es will be slow be­cause of all the rain we have been hav­ing and the bats­men will have to ad­just quick­ly to suit the slow pitch­es.

My four? TKR, Ja­maica Tallawahs, Guyana Ama­zon War­riors and St Kitts and Nevis Pa­tri­ots but spec­ta­tors or no spec­ta­tors it will sure­ly be a great and com­pet­i­tive tour­na­ment. May the best team win. Good luck!

Ed­i­tor's note:

The views ex­pressed in this col­umn are sole­ly those of the au­thor and do not re­flect the views of any or­gan­i­sa­tion of which he is a stake­hold­er.

Well, 'the biggest par­ty in sport' bowls off next Tues­day at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my (BLCA) in Tarou­ba, San Fer­nan­do. Yes, folks, the Caribbean Pre­mier League (CPL) T20 tour­na­ment is back but this year with­out the mu­sic, danc­ing, Tri­ni posse, Tas­sa, flags and most sig­nif­i­cant­ly - spec­ta­tors.

The CPL will just not be the same. We re­cent­ly wit­nessed the biose­cure Test se­ries be­tween Eng­land and the West In­dies and al­though there were no crowds at the venues, the crick­et was riv­et­ing but that is Test crick­et. While the play­ers would love to see the test grounds full, it is far dif­fer­ent when it comes to T20 crick­et. The play­ers thrive off of the adren­a­line from the at­mos­phere, the bound­aries, the catch­es, the wick­ets, the run outs and the fist-pump­ing from the play­ers re­al­ly makes it the biggest par­ty in sport. So, with no spec­ta­tors and some of the re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al stars not tak­ing part in the tour­na­ment, what can we ex­pect this year?

The sur­prise pack­age last year - the Bar­ba­dos Tri­dents - who came from an in­con­sis­tent 5 wins and 5 loss­es in the pre­lim­i­nary stage to win the tour­na­ment, must sure­ly feel they can record back to back wins. It was right here at the BLCA that they de­feat­ed the tour­na­ment favourites, the Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers (TKR), in the se­mi-fi­nal and took care of the pre­vi­ous­ly un­beat­en Guyana Ama­zon War­riors (GAW) in the fi­nal. I thought much of their suc­cess, in the end, was down to their tac­tics as they did their home­work to de­feat the big guns at the death. Look­ing at their squad, they seem stronger in the bowl­ing de­part­ment. Hay­den Walsh Jr. is back but this time he has with him Rashid Khan who is a world-class leg spin­ner. Tra­di­tion­al­ly, leg­gies have done well in the CPL and these two will be well-sup­port­ed by Mitchell Sant­ner, the left-arm or­tho­dox spin­ner, and Ash­ley Nurse who bowled well in Trinidad. The medi­um-fast bowlers in their line up will be steady but not spec­tac­u­lar. Their bat­ting is their con­cern and much will de­pend on John­son Charles, Shamarh Brooks, Shai Hope, and Jonathan Carter to get the runs but they will feel con­fi­dent to de­fend any to­tal.

What does one say about the brides­maid, the GAW? They played bril­liant­ly un­til the fi­nal night when every­thing col­lapsed around them. 26-year-old Chris Green will lead them this year and while the South African born Aus­tralian crick­eter is not by any means a world-class play­er, he gives 150% and will lead by ex­am­ple to in­spire his team. Un­like the Tri­dents, their bat­ting is their strength and any team with Shim­ron Het­my­er, Nicholas Pooran, Bran­don King and the steady Ross Tay­lor will cer­tain­ly feel they can chase any large to­tal. The sea­soned Im­ran Tahir will be their bowl­ing trump card.

TKR will be their usu­al com­pet­i­tive self. Again led by Kieron Pol­lard, they have man­aged to re­tain the ma­jor­i­ty of their 2019 squad and while the wick­et­keep­ing du­ties this year have gone to Tim Seifert (who has re­placed De­nesh Ramdin), they pos­sess a well-bal­anced team. They have se­cured the ser­vices of Fawad Ahmed who proves that there is no sub­sti­tute for a good work­ing 'old thing'. They bat deep and in ad­di­tion to Ahmed, they have the bowl­ing ar­moury to suit any type of bowl­ing con­di­tions.

Vet­er­an Trin­bag­on­ian Rayad Em­rit will lead the St Kitts & Nevis Pa­tri­ots and for me, they may very well be the dark horse in the tour­na­ment. They have some re­al in­di­vid­ual match-win­ners in this team. Evin Lewis will need to sparkle at the top of the or­der to­geth­er with the Aus­tralian pair of Chris Lynn and Ben Dunk with Ramdin guid­ing the mid­dle and low­er or­der. Shel­don Cot­trell and So­hail Tan­vir can make ear­ly in­roads in­to any bat­ting line up and if Ish Sod­hi can ac­cli­ma­tise ear­ly on, he can be among the wick­ets. Do not un­der­es­ti­mate this team.

St Lu­cia Zouks may strug­gle as they have lost some big play­ers in­clud­ing Chris Gayle be­fore the tour­na­ment start­ed. They have se­cured the ser­vices of the hard-hit­ting Na­jibul­lah Zad­ran and to­geth­er with An­dre Fletch­er, they will need to score runs con­sis­tent­ly to give the bowlers some­thing to de­fend. As a bowl­ing unit when one looks through their line­up, tal­ent is abun­dant but over the years, they have grown to throw in the tow­el when things are not go­ing their way. Dar­ren Sam­my will have to keep their spir­it up and get them to play crick­et to their max­i­mum po­ten­tial.

Last but not least is the Ja­maica Tallawahs. How can a team with so much tal­ent fin­ish at the bot­tom of the ta­ble in 2019? Ob­vi­ous­ly, it had to do with off the field an­tics as a few 'big name' play­ers seemed un­hap­py dur­ing the sea­son. Rov­man Pow­ell has been hand­ed the cap­tain's arm­band and if this team can fo­cus on play­ing crick­et, they could be up there with the top four. Any team with An­dre 'Su­per­man' Rus­sell in it is a threat. Sandeep Lamich­hane. with Rus­sell, will spear­head their at­tack but like TKR, this is a well-bal­anced team and can take the ti­tle mov­ing from last to first. Bat­ting wise, Glenn Phillips will be key, and if Jer­maine Black­wood bats in­tel­li­gent­ly, he can be ex­treme­ly dan­ger­ous.

With no spec­ta­tors, TKR will not have their 12th man this sea­son so it should even things out and with all the re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al play­ers in a “bub­ble” at the Hilton Ho­tel to be joined to­mor­row by the lo­cal play­ers, the ques­tion is who will hit the ground run­ning? The pitch­es will be slow be­cause of all the rain we have been hav­ing and the bats­men will have to ad­just quick­ly to suit the slow pitch­es.

My four? TKR, Ja­maica Tallawahs, Guyana Ama­zon War­riors and St Kitts and Nevis Pa­tri­ots but spec­ta­tors or no spec­ta­tors it will sure­ly be a great and com­pet­i­tive tour­na­ment. May the best team win. Good luck!

Ed­i­tor's note:

The views ex­pressed in this col­umn are sole­ly those of the au­thor and do not re­flect the views of any or­gan­i­sa­tion of which he is a stake­hold­er.