Monday 22nd June 2015 – Kingston, Jamaica: Six up-and-coming young cricketers, including USA international, Steven Taylor, and Canadian, Nikhil Dutta, will have the chance to play with and against some of the biggest names in world cricket after being added to the Hero CPL squads after impressing in training camp.
USA player Steven Taylor will represent Barbados Tridents.
Each franchise welcomed four local under-19 players, and one young player from ICC Americas Associate nations, for training camp, with the incentive of a full CPL contract for one lucky player from each team. Amongst the players joining wicketkeeper-batsman, Taylor (Barbados Tridents), and off-spinner, Dutta (Zouks) are West Indies Under-19 player of the year, Shimron Hetmeyer (Guyana Amazon Warriors), and former West Indies Under-19 captain, Ramaal Lewis (Jamaica Tallawahs).
The six players that have been selected are:
Barbados Tridents: Steven Taylor – USA
Guyana Amazon Warriors: Shimron Hetmeyer, Guyana
Jamaica Tallawahs: Ramaal Lewis, Jamaica
St Kitts & Nevis Patriots: Nikhil Dutta, Canada
St Lucia Zouks: Gidron Pope, St Vincent
Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel: Mark Deyal, Trinidad
Tom Moody, CPL Director of Cricket, said: “Competition for a place in the CPL squads has been fierce. The coaches have been very impressed with the quality of young players on show, so it was hard to narrow it down to one player per squad. These six guys have a fantastic opportunity to make a name for themselves on the big stage, and we wish them all the best for CPL 2015.”
The Biggest Party in Sport kicked off on Saturday with defending champions, Barbados Tridents, defeating Guyana Amazon Warriors at Kensington Oval in a repeat of last year’s final. At the Hero CPL, global superstars including Kevin Pietersen, Jacques Kallis and Shahid Afridi will join the Caribbean’s finest cricketers, like Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo, and exciting up-and-coming local talent.
Fans have been given an even greater reason to be at the games this year with the CPL’s recently announced ‘Catch a Million’ competition, the biggest ever sports promotion in the Caribbean. The first fan at every match who catches a six, one-handed, will earn US $1000 on the spot, as well as the chance to go to Trinidad for the final. If they catch another six, one-handed, in the final, they will be presented with US$1 million!
CPL 2015 runs from 20th June to 26th July. Last year’s tournament attracted a global audience in excess of 65 million and this year is set to be even higher as fans across the world continue to be drawn to the high quality action on the pitch and the unique party atmosphere off it.