Three members of the unbeaten Trinbago Knight Riders were selected on the 2020 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) All-stars team which was announced on Wednesday.
First-time finalist, the St. Lucia Zouks had only one member selected for the tournament's XI which was selected by the commentary team of Tom Moody, Ian Bishop, Daren Ganga, Danny Morrison and Samuel Badree.
Three members of the Guyana Amazon Warriors squad and two players from the Jamaica Tallawahs and one each from St Kitts and Nevis Patriots and the 2019 champions, Barbados Tridents, got the selectors nod with TRK captain Kieron Pollard appointed leader.
Tom Moody, CPL’s Director of International Cricket, said: “After healthy discussion and debate the commentators have finalised what they believe is a power-packed all-star XI from Hero CPL 2020. With a tournament dominated by world-class spin there was an abundance of riches, Imran Tahir again proved a challenge to all who came his way. Pollard’s all-round skills again brought some eye-catching performances, it was an easy decision to make him the captain after a flawless league stage."
In a tournament dominated by world-class spin, there was an abundance of riches, Imran Tahir again proved a challenge to all who came his way.
Meanwhile, Sammy who will lead the Zouks into their first final against the favourites Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba, San Fernando from 10 am this morning said after his team's semifinal win on Tuesday night, “My message before I came out was this is not what we came here for – we didn’t come here to celebrate a semifinal. Nobody really gave us a chance but we have some effective guys. We don’t have guys in the top 10 or top five in the runs but we’ve played as a team. It’s a massive effort to get to the final with the players that we have.”
The TKR which outplayed the Jamaica Tallawahs in their semifinal match to secure their place in the title-match was reminded by their captain Pollard that, “Getting this far now is about the big picture which is on Thursday so for us. We still have to try and keep it level. We still have to try and enjoy our victory as we’ve been doing throughout the entire tournament but we still have to come in 48 hours and try to play a better game of cricket than we did today.”
The 2020 CPL All-Stars Team:
Glenn Phillips (wk) – Jamaica Tallawahs
Sunil Narine – Trinbago Knight Riders
Shimron Hetmyer – Guyana Amazon Warriors
Nicholas Pooran – Guyana Amazon Warriors
Darren Bravo – Trinbago Knight Riders
Kieron Pollard (capt) – Trinbago Knight Riders
Mohammad Nabi – St Lucia Zouks
Jason Holder – Barbados Tridents
Rayad Emrit – St Kitts & Nevis Patriots
Imran Tahir – Guyana Amazon Warriors
Mujeeb ur Rahman – Jamaica Tallawahs
The selectors also picked one Caribbean and one overseas 12th man to round out the squad. These are as follows:
Scott Kuggelejin – St Lucia Zouks
Keemo Paul – Guyana Amazon Warriors