The Caribbean Premier League is a professional cricket league that aims to bring the Caribbean nations together to participate in one of the regions’ favorite sports. There are half a dozen top competitors here and the league has been providing quality cricket for the locals since 2013.
The Caribbean Premier League is often abbreviated to CPL or even CPLT20, which refers to the fact that the league operates on a Twenty20 format. There are just 6 teams in this tournament and it begins with a group stage before ending with a knockout stage.
The teams play a total of 10 games in the group stage, only three of which are at home due to the fact that the teams are co-located, which means they play in one location for the first five games and then another for the remaining five games.
The Caribbean Premier League was launched in 2013, taking the place of the Caribbean Twenty20 competition, which itself had been launched back in 2010 and ran just four times before the Caribbean Premier League replaced it.
The Caribbean Premier League is the premier Twenty20 cricketing competition in the Caribbean, a region renowned for producing quality players and one that is well known for its love of the game. Since the beginning the Caribbean Premier League has been contested by teams from across the Caribbean, covering countries like Barbados and Jamaica, as well as St Kitts and Nevis.
The stadiums for the Caribbean Premier League are located across the Americas, ranging from Sabina Park in Jamaica to the Central Broward Regional Park, which is a purpose built cricket ground that is located in Florida, USA.
The first six teams to signup for the Caribbean Premier League were:
In 2015, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots joined the Caribbean Premier League as the first expansion team. This franchise is actually supported by the government of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Many of the players for this new franchise came from Antigua Hawksbills, which didn’t sign on for the 2015 Caribbean Premier League and has been a dormant franchise since them.
The first season of the CPL was in 2013. This was won by Jamaica Tallawahs, who went on to finish third in the second season, before winning for the second time during the 2016 Caribbean Premier League. The Guyana Amazon Warriors have been one of the most consistent teams in the league and finished as the runners-up during the first two seasons and then during the fourth season.
The Trinbago Knight Riders were the surprise winners during the third season. They had finished 4th in the two seasons prior to this and few expected them to claim glory. After they did, many fans had high hopes for their team, but they followed a title in 2015 by finishing 3rd in 2016. The only other winner in the first four seasons of the Caribbean Premier League was the Barbados Tridents, who won in 2014 and then finished as the runners-up the following year.
The side that has the poorest record in the Caribbean Premier League are Antigua Hawksbills, who finished 5th and then 6th in the first two seasons, before going dormant after that. St Lucia Zouks have also had a poor showing throughout. They contested with Antigua at the bottom, finishing 6th and then 5th in this opening two seasons before finishing 5th again in 2015 and then improving with a 4th place in 2016.
Technically the name for the Caribbean Premier League is the Hero CPL, or at least it is as long as the Hero MotoCorp remain the sponsors. Formerly known as Hero Honda, they manufacture scooters and motorcycles in India and are one of the richest companies in the world.
Technically the name for the Caribbean Premier League is the Hero CPL, or at least it is as long as the Hero MotoCorp remain the sponsors. Formerly known as Hero Honda, they manufacture scooters and motorcycles in India and are one of the richest companies in the world.
The Caribbean Premier League is administered by the West Indies Cricket Board and it has a salary cap of $780,000 (this was previously $600,000).
This is one of the most widely broadcasted cricket leagues. It’s not always easy to find live shows of domestic league games outside the big countries, but there is more than a fair share of networks showing this one. What’s more, all of these are free and widely available.
For instance, in the UK, you can watch the Caribbean Premier League on Dave, a channel that is available on Sky, BT, Virgin, Freeview and pretty much every other TV package. It is also shown on BT Sport, which is available as a paid channel on Sky and as a free addition to BT TV. If you’re in the United States and all surrounding territories you can watch the Caribbean Premier League on ESPN.
Other TV channels that show the Caribbean Premier League include ZIZ, CNC3, TV Guyana and the CBC, all of which are based in the Caribbean. It is also shown on TEN Sports in Pakistan, Fox Sports in Australia and Sky Sport in New Zealand. That’s pretty much it for the main ones, but there are a couple other small broadcasters and you can also find live streams online.
