ST JOHN’S – The Caribbean Pre­mier League has wel­comed its newest fran­chise, fol­low­ing the un­veil­ing of the An­tigua and Bar­bu­da Fal­cons in An­tigua on Tues­day.

In an event staged at the Vi­vian Richards Crick­et Sta­di­um, the fran­chise was an­nounced ahead of the new sea­son start­ing Au­gust 28, and will re­place the now de­funct Ja­maica Tallawahs.

Kris Per­saud, the founder and pres­i­dent of fran­chise own­ers WORLD­WIDE Sports Man­age­ment Group, said the im­me­di­ate fo­cus would be cre­at­ing a “win­ner’s cul­ture” with­in the unit.

“We are brand new; we are here, we are ready … let’s get ready to play,” Per­saud said.

“The An­tigua & Bar­bu­da Fal­cons will bring a unique en­er­gy and vi­tal­i­ty to the Re­pub­lic Bank CPL.

“We are ready to fly high and con­quer what is be­fore us. We want to es­tab­lish a win­ner’s cul­ture with­in the team and al­so a cul­ture of win­ning and suc­cess off the field – among every in­di­vid­ual as­so­ci­at­ed with this fran­chise and the amaz­ing fans we will have at our spe­cial home base at the Sir Vi­vian Richards Sta­di­um in love­ly An­tigua.”

For An­tigua, it will be the first time since the 2014 cam­paign that the coun­try will have a pres­ence in the re­gion’s pre­mier Twen­ty20 tour­na­ment.

The An­tigua Hawks­bills fea­tured in the first two sea­sons in 2013 and 2104 be­fore be­ing re­placed the fol­low­ing year by St Kitts and Nevis Pa­tri­ots.

Per­saud, the pre­vi­ous own­er of the Tallawahs fran­chise be­fore sell­ing it back to league last year, praised the part­ner­ship with the An­tigua gov­ern­ment in get­ting the Fal­cons to be­come a re­al­i­ty.

“What you are wit­ness­ing to­day as we un­veil the An­tigua and Bar­bu­da Fal­cons is some­thing tru­ly spe­cial and I want to thank the Gov­ern­ment of An­tigua & Bar­bu­da, who have worked close­ly with us to bring the An­tigua & Bar­bu­da Fal­cons to life,” Per­saud said.

“An­tigua is our home … this coun­try has a rich crick­et his­to­ry and the An­tigua & Bar­bu­da Fal­cons will cre­ate more great his­to­ry on these shores. It is now time for the Fal­cons to fly high.”

The Vi­vian Richards Crick­et Sta­di­um will serve as the home base for Fal­cons, with match­es be­ing played in An­tigua for the first time in a decade.

And Fal­cons chief ex­ec­u­tive and gen­er­al man­ag­er, Jeff Miller, said they planned to en­sure the sta­di­um was packed on game days.

“This is where the ‘par­ty’ in crick­et start­ed, and we are de­light­ed to be back for this ex­cit­ing event,” Miller said.

“We plan to have a full house for every match with our An­tigua and Bar­bu­da Fal­cons on show. This is what we have been wait­ing for.

“It will be amaz­ing to see the Sir Vi­vian Richard Sta­di­um packed and our love­ly su­per fans en­joy­ing the ac­tion and the at­mos­phere, as well as see­ing great crick­et on the field, the non-stop par­ty in the stands and all the fes­tiv­i­ties that come with crick­et in the West In­dies.”

CMC