CPL 2021 start and end date announced, St. Kitts and Nevis to host all matches

The ninth edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) is all set to begin from 28^th August and will end on 19^th September, 2021, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) confirmed on 20th May 2021 (Thursday). The talks were being finalized around the venues for the tournament, with St Kitts & Nevis’ Warner Park being finalized to host the event.

Last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, CPL gave lot of people joy around the world by its quality of cricket. Over the years, CPL has produced quality cricket and has given quite a few of future stars such as Nicholas Pooran and Shimron Heytmer, who have not only gone to do well for the West Indies’ national team but also have made a name for themselves in the Indian Premier League.

CPL seeking to build on its reputation

In the year 2020, the Caribbean Premier League had a combined viewership of 523 million, which was a staggering rise of 67% from 2019, making the sponsors and commercial partners happy and satisfied.

Pete Russell, Hero CPL’s COO, said: “It is really exciting to have the tournament window for 2021 confirmed and I would like to thank the St Kitts & Nevis government for agreeing to host this year’s event. We would also like to extend our thanks to Cricket West Indies for helping us create this window in a busy summer of cricket for them. We are looking forward to once again successfully staging the Hero CPL in 2021.”

The six teams are already busy finalizing and realizing their players ahead of another competitive tournament. The reigning champions Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) have released Pravin Tambe, Tim Seifert, Fawad Ahmed and Amir Jangoo. TKR have signed Denesh Ramdin on April 30. On the other hand, St Lucia Zouks have gone to retain as many as seven players from the squad that finished third on the points table last time around.

Former West Indies skipper Darren Sammy will not take part in CPL 2021. The Zouks’ skipper has apparently decided not to play as a player and wants to stay focused on guiding the youngsters within the squad for the upcoming 2021 season.