Hope for Guyana Amazon Warriors in this year’s CPL, Taylor captains Warriors for WCPL

The Caribbean Premier League players draft was announced earlier today as the Guyana Amazon Warriors aim to finally grasp the championship title.

The Guyana Amazon Warriors have drafted Bajan Shai Hope. The right-handed batsman is well known for his exploits representing the West Indies.

Guyanese Veerasammy Permaul is a left-arm spinner who also features in the squad.

Jermaine Blackwood and Ronsford Beaton have also been drafted alongside emerging Guyanese players Matthew Nandu and Junior Sinclair.

The Warriors are the only team to have ever made it to five CPL finals, but have never managed to lift the Championship trophy.

For the Inaugural Women’s CPL, Stafanie Taylor Captain the Guyana Amazon Warriors who compete against the Barbados Royals Women and Trinbago Knight Rider Women.

“Having a CPL now for Women is a huge deal. I mean, going away to play in franchise cricket and to see we have our own league now is fantastic and it’s great for development of women’s cricket. So I personally is really glad to see that come about now and hope in the future we have more franchise teams."

With three spots for overseas players left to be filled, Taylor will be supported by Vice Captain, Guyanese Shemaine Campbell.

Guyanese Cherry-Ann Fraser, Kaysia Schultz, and Shabika Gajnabi. The rest of the squad is Rashada Williams, Rachel Vincent, Chedean Nation, Shamilia Connell, Karishma Ramharack and Zaida James.

“I find that the team is very balanced and I hope that we come out victors. You know it would be really nice to be in the same place come in August where everyone gets to gel coming into the tournament.” Taylor added.

Guyanese Mandy Mangru features in the Barbados Royals squad while Sheneta Grimmond is part of the Trinbago Knight Riders.

CPL Tournament Operations Director Michael Hall says this year’s CPL men’s draft has some minor changes from previous years.

“A little bit of a different twist this year ahead of the draft. The end of the 2021 season marked the end of the three-year contract cycle for West Indian players. So technically, they all became free agents. As a result of that, we instituted two windows, two negotiating windows, ahead of the draft this year.

“In the first one, teams were able to negotiate with their West Indian players in an attempt to re-sign them and when that window was closed there was a second negotiating window where teams were now able to try to sign the players who weren’t protected by their franchises in the first negotiating window.”

The draft regulations outline has initiated for the first time this year that each 17-member squad must include two emerging players.

Squads can retain up to five local players (with a maximum of two from the top five salary slots) and sign two more players who were not retained by other teams.

Overseas players are signed before the draft with a maximum of five overseas players allowed in each squad.

These teams will also be competing in the 6IXTY; a new fast-paced cricket format being introduced this year.