Never underestimate the Caribbean Premier League: a high-class tournament and more significant than you could ever know

JARROD KIMBER: Usually, the CPL gets buried at midnight during busy periods in the international calendar. This year only, it's one of the few cricket tournaments you can watch

You've probably heard more about the CPL than ever seen it.

It's perhaps an abstract concept to you, night games in the West Indies don't suit many audiences around the world. There is certainly no better T20 league that exists in scorecards and highlights more than the CPL.

Many T20 experts would claim it to be one of the world's best leagues. Fighting off the Pakistan Super League for second place, especially as the Big Bash doesn't even have its best players show up. The CPL has its best players and four overseas.

And the West Indian guns are the game's best. Almost every major team around the world has a West Indian as a star import, Dwayne Bravo appears to play for more than a team at a time, he's in so many leagues. So it's a tournament where the local players are the best overseas players. 

But it's more than that. For many leagues around the world, their best T20 talent is often their best international talent, meaning they can't specialise in T20, as they have other commitments.

That hasn't happened as much in the West Indies. There are other factors, like how the West Indians naturally played cricket, and competitions like Windball in Trinidad. But West Indians took to T20 while everyone else was still hitting and giggling. 

It's easy to forget now that Chris Gayle wasn't in the first two IPLs, and now West Indians are flown out to India for trials before they've played any pro cricket.  

The Caribbean economy played a part in making West Indies cricketers into T20 players. But its also what makes the CPL such a tricky long term proposition which struggles to keep even these six teams afloat. Teams like the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots and St Lucia Zouks are on small islands and struggled to monetise their teams locally.

And when the CPL has taken owners, some have been opportunistic and of poor quality. Before the 2019 season, the CPL were actively trying to get rid of two owners while two others were looking to sell. That is 66 per cent of the league in a leadership flux. The CPL also bid for the rights to the T20 league in the US. Which is probably the only way it could guarantee its long term success, having four Caribbean based teams with two in the US, and then looking to expand when the league was more stable.

^{There will be no Chris Gayle this year}

That means the league is in a precarious position, which is absurd considering each year it becomes better on the field. West Indian cricket is on the rise, that should be clear from England's last two Test series.

Do you remember when people used to say that West Indians didn't like cricket anymore, or that basketball had replaced it? Jamaican Patrick Ewing was drafted in 1985 by the New York Knicks, but since there's been few NBA players born on the major cricket islands. On the streets, you still see a lot more cricket played than basketball. 

So all they really needed was a better professional structure. Well the CPL has turned a generation of cricketers from amateurs to professionals. Most of the top 10 spots on the CPL rosters earn more than the highest paid domestic contracts. And they're also advertisements for these players to go abroad and make even more. So a player like Rovman Powell might already be lost to the West Indies without the CPL. 

Powell's an incredible striker of the ball, but he's a middle-order player. To fit him regularly into the West Indies team would be tough. Fighting for spots have been Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Nicholas Pooran, Carlos Brathwaite, and Darren Sammy, most of whom have better all-round skills to offer than Powell. He's only played 50 internationals in white-ball cricket because many of these players were in an active - and very justified - war with the previous CWI board.

Caribbean Premier League team guides: All six sides reviewed in detail

But what the CPL allows is for Powell to make a good living playing domestic T20, at home, and away. At 27, and a fringe player, he wouldn't have been able to commit to cricket under the old system. Now he can work on his game all year round, and another big CPL would mean overseas franchise work. There are a lot of incredible cricketers in the West Indies that aren't well known. Odean Smith is a 90mph bowler who can clear stadiums when he hits. He barely gets off the bench.

And it's been an interesting league for overseas players. Qais Ahmad, Anton Devcich and Tabraiz Shamsi made their original impact by playing in the CPL. Also, because of the need to have one US player on the list,  Ali Khan was given a major platform.

So with four overseas players per team, usually at least two local heavy hitters, some of the best young talent in the world, and US players, it means every team will have something interesting.

^{Guyana Amazon Warriors are still yet to come out on top in the final}

Team-wise, the two best franchises have been Guyana and Trinbago. If you want your plucky guys who work hard, Guyana invest in local young talent and use role players as their overseas guys. They have made five finals, and they have won none. They include Shimron Hetmyer, Pooran and Keemo Paul. If you're looking for a team to give you a long ride and probably break your heart, this is a decent choice.

Trinbago (if the ECB ever want to honour Wales they could play as Wengland or Eales) are owned by the Kolkata Knight Riders ownership group, meaning they have more resources available to them than some countries' GDP. Their lineup is always so good you wonder how they manage it within the salary cap. Their three local leading players are Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, and Sunil Narine. They've already won three titles in seven seasons. 

Barbados are the reigning champs. Their list doesn't look strong, but they have two leg-spinners. One is Hayden Walsh Jr, the Bajan American leg-spinner who might also be the world's best fielder. And another bloke called Rashid Khan.

Sheldon Cottrell: Forever a soldier

The Jamaica Tallawahs don't have local legend Chris Gayle, and you'd think that would negate their six-hitting ability. But their roster has the most six-hitting talent I have ever seen for any team anywhere at any time in any place. Here are the names: Carlos Brathwaite, Asif Ali, Rovman Powell, Chadwick Walton and Andre Russell. In the last three years, T20 players hit a six every 19 balls. Walton and Powell are every 12, Brathwaite 11, Asif nine and Dre Russ 5.4 (no, that is correct, he hits one six in every over he is out there). 

St Kitts & Nevis has a peculiar team. Including Nick Kelly - a Kiwi batsman I have never heard of. I'm still waiting to see if this is a real guy or some kind of elaborate Adrian Shankar joke. They do have Sohail Tanvir and Sheldon Cottrell, so there will be plenty of left-arm action. 

And then the team I worked at as an analyst, and then general manager, St Lucia. They were initially the Zouks, then the Stars, now  the Zouks again. None of this has helped them much, they are the only existing franchise (RIP Antigua Hawksbills) to have never made the final. And mostly they don't even get close. But they have Rahkeem Cornwall, and for that alone, they should be your favourite team.

Usually, the CPL gets buried at midnight during busy periods in the international calendar. This year only, it's one of the few cricket tournaments you can watch.

The Cricketer's coverage of the CPL comes in collaboration with the Caribbean Cricket Podcast