Nicholas Pooran has been named as the new captain of Guyana Amazon Warriors ahead of the CPL 2021 season. The dashing ‘keeper-batsman will take over the reins from Chris Green, who has been released by the franchise. Along with Pooran, the Warriors have retained a total of 11 players from last year’s squad including the likes of Shimron Hetmyer, Brandon King, Imran Tahir and Naveen Ul Haq. The big missing name is Mujeeb ur Rahman – the leading wicket-taker in 2020 with 16 wickets has been ignored.
Meanwhile, Andre Russell, who had a bittersweet relationship with the Tallawahs last year where he even indicated about leaving the team at the end of the tournament, will surprisingly stay with Jamaica along with fellow local stars – Carlos Brathwaite, Rovman Powell, Chadwick Walton, Fidel Edwards and promising youngster in Ryan Persaud being the seventh player to be retained by the franchise.
Two-time champions Barbados Tridents have retained skipper Jason Holder despite enduring a tough 2020 campaign where they lost 7 games and failed to qualify for the semis. Apart from Holder, Shai Hope, Kyle Mayers, Raymon Reifer, Justin Greaves, Nyeem Young, Joshua Bishop, Johnson Charles and Hayden Walsh Jr are the others to have been given the contract extension.
Defending Champions Trinbago Knight Riders have parted ways with veteran Dwyane Bravo with the all-rounder being traded to St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots. They’ve got back Denesh Ramdin in return and overall have managed to retain the majority of the team which won them the trophy last year. Kieron Pollard will remain captain while the leading run-scorer of the previous season, Lendl Simmons, who amassed 356 runs in 11 games last season, will continue to represent the Knight Riders, in addition to other big names like Colin Munro, Sunil Narine, Darren Bravo, Sikandar Raza and Khary Pierre.
Another team that had a forgettable competition in 2020 was St Kitts & Nevis Patriots. The franchise was severely handicapped due to the absence of stars owing to Covid-19. They could muster just one win in 10 games and bagged the wooden spoon. However, the inclusion of seasoned campaigner Dwayne Bravo from TKR will be a shot in the arm for the Patriots. They have also successfully traded Sherfane Rutherford from Guyana in their bid to strengthen the batting.
The runners-up St Lucia Zouks will see a new skipper in this upcoming edition of CPL as Daren Sammy announced his decision to quit captaincy to assume the role of consultant and Brand Ambassador for the Zouks. Other prominent names to feature in the retained list are Andre Fletcher, Kesrick Williams, Rahkeem Cornwall and Roston Chase, who was the top run-getter for the franchise. But they have let go of the Afghanistan spin duo of Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan. The reason behind this move being their busy International schedule.
Retained players:
St Lucia Zouks- Andre Fletcher, Kesrick Williams, Rahkeem Cornwall, Roston Chase, Obed Mccoy, Mark Deyal and Javelle Glenn.
St Kitts & Nevis Patriots -Dwyane Bravo (from TKR), Evin Lewis, Fabian Allen, Sherfane Rutherford (from GAW), Sheldon Cotrell, Rayad Emrit, Jon Russ Jaggesar, Dominic Drakes, Joshua Da SIlva
Barbados Tridents- Jason Holder, Johnson Charles, Shai Hope, Kyle Mayers, Hayden Walsh JR, Raymon Reifer, Justin Greaves, Nyeem Young, Joshua Bishop
Guyana Amazon Warriors -Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Imran Tahir, Brendon King, Naveen Ul Haq, Romario Shephard, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Odean Smith, Anthony Bramble, Kevin Sinclair, Ashmead Nedd
Jamaica Tallawahs- Andre Russell, Carlos Brathwaite, Rovman Powell, Fidel Edwards, Veerasammy Permaul, Ryan Persaud
Trinbago Knight Riders – Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Darren Bravo, Colin Munro, Lendl Simmons, Sikandar Raza, Khary Pierre, Anderson Phillip, Dinesh Ramdin (From St Kitts), Tion Webster, Akeal Hosein, Jayden Seales, Ali Khan
(Source: cricbuzz)
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