(CMC) – An Antigua-based franchise will replace the Jamaica Tallawahs in the Caribbean Premier League next year.
According to media reports, Kris Persaud, a Guyanese business executive based in the United States, owned the Tallawahs, but he has sold them back to the CPL because ownership was unable to find a sustainable operating model.
“The owners were left with no option but to sell the Tallawahs back to CPL as they could not find a way to operate the team sustainably,” a CPL spokesperson told ESPNCricinfo.
The Antigua Hawksbills played in the first two seasons of the CPL, winning only three matches before being replaced by the St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots, but no name has yet been proposed for the new franchise to be started in St. John’s.
Antigua & Barbuda minister of sport, Daryll Matthew, said in the Senate earlier this week: “We can expect very easily and conservatively to generate approximately $6 million per year by simply having a CPL franchise based in Antigua & Barbuda.”
A CPL spokesman said the league is committed to having a team based in Jamaica, but this will be “in 2025 at the earliest.”
“In 2024, there will be six teams taking part in the CPL, with franchises based in Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, and Trinidad & Tobago,” the CPL spokesman said.
Fresh from a 3-2 series win against England, West Indies T20I captain Rovman Powell said it was “disappointing” for his home island not to have a franchise.
Powell led the Tallawahs to their second CPL title last year, but Jamaica has not hosted any CPL games for the past four years, also owing to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), when health and safety issues led to the tournament being staged in a single territory.
“Jamaica is the biggest island in the Caribbean, a proud nation, a proud cricketing nation,” he said. “For those things to be happening is a little bit disappointing.”
Jamaica did not bid and so will not stage any matches in the T20I World Cup next year, having previously staged an international match in August last year.
“Obviously, I’m a Jamaican, and I want to play in front of my home crowd, but for the last few years, I haven’t,” Powell said. “(Cricket West Indies) and the Jamaican government really have to sit down and have a conversation about that.”
The 2024 CPL season is expected to start in mid-August and extend into September.