CAS­TRIES, St Lu­cia – The Saint Lu­cia Kings have locked in their over­seas fire­pow­er for the 2026 Hero Caribbean Pre­mier League sea­son, un­veil­ing a five-man in­ter­na­tion­al ros­ter that blends crafty spin, ex­plo­sive bat­ting, and all-round grit.

The fran­chise con­firmed the sign­ings of Afghan wrist-spin­ner Noor Ah­mad, New Zealand wick­et­keep­er-bat­ter Tim Seifert, Sri Lankan off-spin­ner Ma­heesh Theek­shana, Sri Lankan left-han­der Charith Asalan­ka, and USA seam­er Shadley van Schalk­wyk ahead of the up­com­ing cam­paign.

The 2026 re­cruit­ment dri­ve sig­nals the Kings’ clear am­bi­tion to for­ti­fy both spin and pace de­part­ments while pre­serv­ing the de­struc­tive top-or­der fire­pow­er that has de­fined their re­cent CPL iden­ti­ty.

Noor Ah­mad, one of the most cov­et­ed white-ball spin­ners on the glob­al T20 cir­cuit, re­turns to spear­head the Kings’ mid­dle-over at­tack.

De­spite his youth, the Afghan has earned a rep­u­ta­tion across leagues for strik­ing at piv­otal junc­tures and out­smart­ing bat­ters with de­cep­tion well be­yond his years.

Tim Seifert ex­tends his stay with the fran­chise, ce­ment­ing his role as one of the CPL’s most feared wick­et­keep­er-bat­ters. The Ki­wi’s flex­i­bil­i­ty through­out the or­der and con­sis­tent run-scor­ing in world­wide fran­chise tour­na­ments make him an in­dis­pens­able pil­lar of the Kings’ bat­ting spine once again.

Ma­heesh Theek­shana ar­rives as a new weapon, armed with sub­tle vari­a­tions and un­err­ing ac­cu­ra­cy in both the pow­er­play and death overs.

The Sri Lankan off-spin­ner has be­come a fran­chise crick­et main­stay, prized for his com­po­sure and abil­i­ty to sti­fle bat­ters across every for­mat.

Charith Asalan­ka brings not on­ly left-hand­ed el­e­gance but al­so a cool cap­tain’s head to the group. The Sri Lankan is a proven fin­ish­er, ca­pa­ble of an­chor­ing a chase or un­leash­ing late-overs fire­works with equal flu­en­cy.

Com­plet­ing the over­seas quin­tet is USA quick Shadley van Schalk­wyk, whose pace and bounce add a fresh di­men­sion to the Kings’ bowl­ing ar­se­nal.

CMC