On the heels of the 2020 Caribbean Premier League (CPL), tournament director, Michael Hall is optimistic that the squads will be sufficient in light of the circumstances.
Due to the Novel Coronavirus restrictions, the teams have been placed into a 14-day quarantine and will see the CPL for the first time played behind closed doors. The restrictions have forced squads to stick to their 17 members.
Hall spoke to the media yesterday via Zoom and explained his views on the situation.
“To answer the broader question about what would happen to a team if they were to lose players, everybody has a 17-man squad and here we are talking about cricket related injuries and while we have had a few in the previous years, I’m not thinking that it would be likely that six people would go down,” Hall stated.
The tournament director affirmed that in addition to hopes of less injuries, “obviously there is a bigger situation we don’t want to contemplate and that is if someone was to return a positive test and we are certainly not anticipating that.”
Hall indicated that some teams have been able to walk with extra players who have the benefit of calling on them to fill the shoes of injured players despite not being in the official squad. He namedropped Kieran Powell and Sheeno Berridge as two players who are labeled “practice players” for the St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots.
“The St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots do have officially a 16-man squad at the moment following the unfortunate incident with Fabian Allen but the St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots brought along two players who they intended to be part of the squad as practice players and certainly in event and in the circumstances in the event something were to happen to St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots they are certainly one team that have two players they would be able to draw on and again in the circumstances the technical committee would have no objection to that,” the tournament director stated.
He went on to say, “If I am to be honest they were brought along for that eventuality, I think they were brought along in the attempt by the St. Kitts and Nevis government to back the franchise and give as many of their nationals a chance to be around…”
Hall stated, “I agree that it is not ideal but we have done the best we can in the circumstances and we certainly hope and pray the injuries will be minimal.”
CPL is packed with double headers and will bowl off from August 18 with the final billed for September 10.
