ST. KITTS, St Kitts & Nevis: The tournament window for the 2021 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) has been confirmed. The 2021 event will get underway on 28 August and will run until 19 September.
Pertinently, the date selected for the CPL final directly clashes with the kick-off timeline that the Indian Premier League has set for the first game of IPL 2021 remainder, which is scheduled to be played in the UAE between 19 September and 15 October.
Seeing as that is the case, cricketers playing in the CPL who are also contracted with IPL teams will miss a good chunk off the IPL remainder due to the scheduling. It bears noting that quarantine protocols that will apply in the UAE will also have to be factored in, even assuming that players are put on to chartered flights immediately after the CPL’s conclusion.
Add the fact that Knight Rider Sports Pvt Ltd and KPH Dream Cricket Private Limited are the respective holding companies of CPL teams Trinbago Knight Riders and St Lucia Zouks, as well as IPL franchises Kolkata Knight Riders and Punjab Kings, makes the situation even more piquant.
Coming back to the CPL, this year the tournament will take place in St Kitts & Nevis with all 33 matches being played at Warner Park in St Kitts. This follows on from the successful staging of CPL in Trinidad & Tobago in 2020.
In 2020 the tournament had a combined viewership of 523 million, an increase of 67% on 2019 with record value delivered to sponsors and commercial partners.
Pete Russell, CPL’s COO, said: “It is really exciting to have the tournament window for 2021 confirmed and I would like to thank the St Kitts & Nevis government for agreeing to host this year’s event. We would also like to extend our thanks to Cricket West Indies for helping us create this window in a busy summer of cricket for them. We are looking forward to once again successfully staging the Hero CPL in 2021.”
What is evident from these developments is that the IPL management and franchises have a real challenge on their collective hands as far as making up the international player numbers go. Clearly, it is not only the English and Australian players that will likely be missing from IPL team rosters when the world’s biggest annual cricket gig picks up from where it left off on 19 September.
