Hero CPL 2018 Teams, Format and Squads: Everything you need to know
The Caribbean Premier League returns for its sixth season and is scheduled to run from August 8 till September 16, 2018. Just like the previous edition, the tournament will feature six country-based franchises - Barbados Tridents, Guyana Amazon Warriors, Jamaica Tallawahs, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, St Lucia Stars and Trinbago Knight Riders.
Format: Each team will play every other team twice in a double round-robin fashion before the knockout stage which will consist of two qualifiers, an eliminator and the final. The fixtures will be played across seven different countries including the United States of America where 3 of the 34 games are set to be played.
New Rules: In July 2018, two changes to the playing conditions were announced for the tournament. The first was a penalty to a team's net run rate for failing to bowl their overs in the given time. This rule could significantly affect the teams' chances of moving ahead in the tournament. According to this rule, if a team failed to complete their overs within the allotted time frame then, as a penalty, 0.05 points will be deducted from their NRR. While for every additional over, the teams will face a supplementary deduction of 0.10 points from the net run rate. The maximum time allowed for completing the twenty overs is 85 minutes plus the additional time allotted by the umpires in certain circumstances such as rain or unexpected delays.
The second change was the introduction of a coin toss, to determine who will bat first if a Super Over is needed to decide the result of the match. Currently, the team which batted second in a tied match, automatically become eligible to bat first in the super over.
St Lucia Stars
St Lucia have not had much success so far in the Caribbean Premier League and they have managed to go through to the playoffs just once in the five seasons. The Stars had a horrendous season last year when they failed to win a single game and were the first of all the teams in the competition to get knocked out. That was their worst performance in the history of the CPL and they will be hoping for a much better result this time. In a major change, Kieron Pollard has replaced Darren Sammy as skipper of the St Lucia Stars for this year.
With the bat, Lendl Simmons with 17 half-centuries is the leading run-getter in the CPL and he could open the batting alongside David Warner, who is coming on the back of successful GT20 campaign. While Andre Fletcher, who scored the most runs for the Stars last time is expected to boost the middle-order batting along with skipper Koee on Pollard.
With the ball, Stars have formed a good unit this year with the likes Mitchell McClenaghan, Kesrick Williams, Dasun Shanaka and Mohammad Sami. Williams has 25 wickets in 15 T20 internationals, While Mohammad Sami is one of most destructive bowlers in T20 and both of them will be key for the stars.
Complete Squad: Kieron Pollard (C), Lendl Simmons, Darren Sammy, Mohammad Sami, Andre Fletcher, Mitchell McClenaghan, Kesrick Williams, Niroshan Dickwella, Rahkeem Cornwall, Qais Ahmad, Kavem Hodge, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Dasun Shanaka, Christopher Lamont, Obed McCoy, Odean Smith, Jaskaran Malhotra and David Warner.