This week the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) is back with us as the matches begin at Warner Park in St Kitts, and the second one, with Guyana’s Amazon Warriors meeting the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, was a thriller. Guyana put the Patriots in to bat and ended up needing 30 runs from the last three overs for the win. In the end, Jason Mohammed hit the two runs needed for the win on the second-to-last ball off of a very difficult dropped catch by duPlessis.
The CPL, which is reportedly drawing considerable attention worldwide, seems to be picking up where it left off last year, with an array of international names sprinkled among the teams in the tournament and that mix, adroitly combined by the organisers with the attractive ingredients of Caribbean culture, has created an event that is attracting a range of patrons, including tourists, as well as various prominent sponsors.
The Warriors/Patriots clash offered a good microcosm of what the CPL is about with vibrant and exciting cricket on the pitch, soca music and carnival costumes on the sidelines and in the stands, the usual inter-island figures, plus some selected contests and competitions revolving around the matches. One of the latter in the St Kitts game was a US$500 bonus for the person in attendance with the “most colourful” outfit. That last item is a clear demonstration of the transformations that have come to cricket, albeit to the horror of many purists, with the arrival of the T20 format of the game; imagine a session at Lord’s with a costumed spectator at the match winning £500 simply for how he/she is dressed? W G Grace has to be churning in his grave.
