St Kitts and Nevis Patriots

St Kitts and Nevis Patriots
Captain: to be determined
Coach: South Africa Eric Simons
Colors: to be determined
Founded: 2015
Home ground: Warner Park, Basseterre
Capacity: 10,000

The St Kitts and Nevis Patriots are a Caribbean Premier League (CPL) franchise based in Saint Kitts and Nevis, and will participate in the competition from the 2015 season. The team will play its home games at Warner Park, Basseterre, located on Saint Kitts, and, like the league's other franchises, draw the majority of its players from West Indian domestic teams.

The league's first expansion team, the new franchise was announced on 27 January 2015, supported by the Saint Kitts and Nevis government, as well as the local business community.[1] The country's Minister for Sport, Glen Phillip, had written to the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) in September 2013, proposing that a franchise be based at Warner Park after the government had floodlights installed there.[2] During the 2014 CPL tournament, Warner Park hosted nine matches, played over 10 days in August and accompanied by several carnivals and other entertainments. The venue hosted the final six group-stage matches, and then the finals series, comprising two semi-finals and the final between the Barbados Tridents and the Guyana Amazon Warriors.[3]

The Saint Kitts and Nevis franchise effectively replaces the Antigua Hawksbills franchise (based in Antigua and Barbuda), although it is intended that the Hawksbills franchise will be revived at a later date, with the CPL consequently featuring seven teams rather than six.[4] The Hawksbills were primarily removed from the competition in order to make scheduling easier, though their poor results and lack of a private owner also contributing to their removal.[5] Saint Kitts and Nevis nominated four previous Hawksbills players – Justin Athanaze, Carlos Brathwaite, Orlando Peters, and Devon Thomas – as their "retained players" prior to the 2015 CPL Draft.[6] South African Eric Simons, formerly senior coach of the Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League (IPL) was confirmed as the franchise's inaugural coach in early February 2015.[7]

Squad

The Patriots' inaugural 15-man squad was assembled at the 2015 CPL Draft. Pakistani Shahid Afridi was the franchise's top pick, and will receive $US150,000 for the month-long tournament. The four retained players (nominated by the franchise prior to the draft) are marked with an asterisk:[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "St Kitts and Nevis join CPL with new Franchise team" – CricketArchive. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  2. ↑ (23 September 2013). "St. Kitts and Nevis want Caribbean Premier League franchise" – sportskeeda. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  3. ↑ (12 March 2014). "Warner Park in St Kitts to host CPL finals" – Jamaica Observer. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  4. ↑ (2 February 2015). "New franchise to replace Hawksbills in CPL 2015" – ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  5. ↑ Garth Wattley (1 February 2015). "Too many: CPL official explains absence of Hawksbills" – Trinidad Express. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  6. ↑ (2 February 2015). "Hawksbills dropped for CPL 2015" – cricbuzz. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  7. ↑ (4 February 2015)> "Eric Simons to Coach St. Kitts-Nevis CPL Team" – SKNVibes. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
  8. ↑ (6 February 2015). "Afridi top pick at Caribbean Premier League draft" – ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 6 February 2015.