For­mer West In­dies white-ball cap­tain Kieron Pol­lard and fel­low re­tired in­ter­na­tion­al all-rounder Dwayne Bra­vo are two of four es­tab­lished Twen­ty20 spe­cial­ists re­tained by four-time cham­pi­ons Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers for this year’s Caribbean Pre­mier League, start­ing in Au­gust.

Pol­lard and Bra­vo, as well as dis­card­ed West In­dies pair of all-rounder An­dre Rus­sell and spin­ner Sunil Nar­ine, all of whom now make their liv­ing from the game mov­ing from one fran­chise T20 tour­na­ment to the next, are among the play­ers TKR have re­tained for the sea­son.

“We are very hap­py to be able to re­tain most of the Caribbean play­ers from last year’s TKR squad,” head coach Phil Sim­mons said. “The ex­pe­ri­ence of Kieron Pol­lard, Sunil Nar­ine, An­dre Rus­sell, and Nicholas Pooran cou­pled with Dwayne Bra­vo’s re­turn gives our squad a very strong core.”

Pooran, the for­mer West In­dies white-ball cap­tain, as well com­pa­tri­ots, left-arm spin­ner Akeal Ho­sein, and pac­er Jay­den Seales were al­so re­tained.

The fran­chise pre­vi­ous­ly an­nounced they had swapped left-arm spin­ner Khary Pierre for bats­man Mark Deyal with the St Lu­cia Kings.

“In young­sters like Akeal Ho­sein, Jay­den Seales, and Mark Deyal, we have some of the best young tal­ent from Trinidad rep­re­sent­ing TKR,” Sim­mons said.

“We’re look­ing for­ward to the re­main­ing in­ter­na­tion­al sign­ings, and I am ex­cit­ed by the play­er draft com­ing up soon to com­plete the ros­ter and put to­geth­er a strong squad for CPL 2023.”

The over­seas play­ers and draft picks will be an­nounced dur­ing the play­er draft, which takes place at the end of June.

The tour­na­ment starts on Au­gust 16 with the fi­nal tak­ing place on Sep­tem­ber 24, and match­es will be played in Bar­ba­dos, Guyana, St Kitts, St Lu­cia, and Trinidad.

CMC