CPL 2018: Chairman of St Lucia Stars explains the reason behind David Warner's inclusion

The suspended Australian cricketer David Warner will be plying his trade in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) this season. Warner was picked by St. Lucia Stars in the tournament as a replacement for another Australian D’Arcy Short who had to forgo the tournament due to national duties.

Although suspended for a year by Cricket Australia, the 31-year-old is allowed to play T20 leagues around the world. The left-handed batsman will be making his debut in the league next week when he walks out to play the season opener for the Stars on August 8 when they face defending champions Trinbago Knight Riders.

Warner made a comeback into professional cricket in June when he played the Global T20 Canada. He represented the Winnipeg Hawks in the tournament and also led the team in quite a few games. His team ended up as the runners-up in that tourney. Ahead of the start of CPL 2018, Jay Pandya, Chairman of St Lucia Stars opened up about why they chose Warner while speaking to timesnownews.com.

David Warner was always our first choice

Pandya said that the Aussie opener was always their first choice once they knew that D’Arcy Short wouldn’t be available. He termed Warner a great T20 player and mentioned that he adds a great value to the team and that they was looking forward to having the dynamo on their side in the tournament.

“David is one of the most brilliant and powerful T20 cricketers to play the game. He is going to add a substantial amount of experience and firepower to this team and we are all looking forward to seeing him perform this year,” the chairman said. Further, he added that he isn’t much concerned about Warner’s past. Pandya said that he is a strong believer in second chances.

“Although he has had an issue with Cricket Australia, that was in the past. And as a strong believer in second chances, I am pleased to be the one to give David another shot to get back in the game and prove to everyone that he is still in that top tier of cricketers,” he said while speaking about the ball-tampering saga.

Short was picked in Australia A team and hence won’t be a part of the tournament. “In the draft, we selected D’Arcy Short, knowing that he had entered the draft and had been playing at a high level for a while. But when D’Arcy was called to play for Australia (Australia A), we immediately set our sights on David and looked to get a deal done to have David replace D’Arcy. We had some other players in mind as well, in case David could not play or we could not strike a deal, but David was our the first guy we thought about,” he further stated.

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