Caribbean Premier League Predictions & Tips

There is a joke in T20 circles that the shortest format of cricket is born purely for the flamboyant West Indian players. Look at any T20 league and the best entertainers will often be the men from the Islands. No wonder then that at any player auction or draft they remain the biggest drawcards. 

How about an entire tournament of West Indian flavour? Those flamboyant shots, that reggae music in the stands, the passion in the oldies, and above all entertainment all the way through! Welcome to the Caribbean Premier League or CPL. It is not the first T20 league or the most commercialised one, but it certainly is the most colourful one.

One of the first privately organised T20 domestic cricket tournaments was held in the Caribbean Islands. The Stanford 20/20 lasted just two years before being transformed into the Caribbean Premier League in 2013.

Six teams across the West Indies contest the CPL - the Barbados Tridents, Guyana Amazon Warriors, Jamaica Tallawahs, St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots, St. Lucia Zouks and Trinbago Knight Riders. The tournament runs from June to August each year.

With its unique setting in the Caribbean Islands, the tournament is played in six venues and even ventured into the untapped United States to expand its reach. The tournament is divided into a group stage and knockouts. Each team plays ten matches in the group stages, three of which are played at home. 

The CPL has a very unusual format with all six teams located at the same venue for five sequential matches. The tournament then moves to a new location for five more games, and so on. The play-offs are played between the top four teams with the two semi-finals and the final all played at the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad.

Each franchise is mandated to contract 15 players, including a maximum of five international players and four players under the age of 23. Each team has one local and one international player each.

There is considerable interest in the CPL, not just because of the star power that is on display. The tournament is set to gain some traction in the next years as can be seen from the fact that the Knight Riders franchise from the Indian Premier League have set their foot in the CPL by acquiring the Trinidad & Tobago franchise.

Jamaica Tallawahs and Trinbago Knight Riders are the most successful teams in the tournament with two titles each. Barbados Tridents are the only other side to have won the tournament in its five-year history.