As is the case in the cricketing world these days, as one franchise event concludes another one begins, with the Caribbean Premier League getting underway on Thursday for the CPL 2021 season as the six franchises once again battle it out for the title.
Trinbago Knight Riders won the tournament on home soil last season and they will be out to make a successful defence of their title but they will have to do so on overseas soil with the entire tournament taking place in St Kitts.
Recent Winners
2020 – Trinbago Knight Riders
2019 – Barbados Tridents
2018 – Trinbago Knight Riders
2017 – Trinbago Knight Riders
2016 – Jamaica Tallawahs
2015 – Trindad and Tobago Red Steel
2014 – Barbados Tridents
2013 – Jamaica Tallawahs
The Format
The six teams in the tournament each play each other twice over the regular season part of the competition. There is no home and away as the entire event takes place solely in St Kitts in front of what is hoped will be 50% capacity. At the end of the league phase the top four teams go into the semi-finals with first playing fourth and second taking on third. The two winners progress to the final where the title will be won. The final of the competition takes place on September 15.
The Teams
The Trinbago Knight Riders have won this tournament in three of the last four seasons and they will be the favourites to win this time around as well even though they have lost use of home advantage. Another thing they have lost the use of is the services of Dwayne Bravo who will be representing the home side this season. Trinbago have quality in their overseas quartet of Yasir Shah, Tim Seifert, Isuru Udana and Colin Munro and some good local spinners. They are probably the team to beat but might not be the strong chance they were last year.
The Guyana Amazon Warriors are the seemingly perennial bridesmaids in this competition, although last year was a rare season when they didn’t make the final, having made the final five times but not having walked away with the trophy. They retain a strong squad this time around and it might be that all the matches being played on the one ground serves them well because usually a lot of their success comes from the low and slow conditions of Guyana which suits their spinners nicely. Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik compliment the West Indian batsmen nicely and with Imran Tahir having shown no signs of slowing down at The Hundred recently there is nothing to stop the Amazon Warriors going well. Their record in finals would put me off at a short price though.
Barbados Royals are the only team who aren’t called Trinbago to have won the tournament in the last four years and they will be looking for another title, this time under a different name after swapping their Tridents moniker for the Royals. They have added one of the best batsmen in the competition in the last few seasons to their ranks in Glenn Phillips and with a bowling attack that looks very strong and to have all conditions covered it isn’t hard to see the Tridents going well. They are going to need a fair amount of batting output from the likes of Kyle Mayers and Jason Holder if they are to win the title but that isn’t beyond all possibility.
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The Jamaica Tallawahs are usually well supported in any betting market in this competition because they have the services of the destructive Andre Russell and on this tiny Warner Park ground he could be very dangerous if he stays fit for the three weeks. Chris Green and Qais Ahmad are good pickups for the Tallawahs but they will need some batting to deliver the goods above Russell in the order rather than rely on him for their runs. That means Rovman Powell and Chadwick Walton will need better seasons than we saw last term as they need to deal with the loss of Phillips at the top of the order.
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots are a side that often flatter to deceive. One of the reasons for that is because the pitches at Warner Park are so good to bat on and the playing surface is tiny so their bowlers struggle to defend totals. They have Dwayne Bravo to attempt to help them with that quest this season though. Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Devon Thomas and Sherfane Rutherford offer up a solid top four with the likes of Ravi Bopara and Fabian Allen around to propel totals to a high number. It wouldn’t be wise to sleep on the home side this term.
The St Lucia Kings have moved to a third name in a bid to win this title for the first time and they might well have some success with this one. It is easy to forget they made the final last season. Bookmakers seem to have dome that because they are the outsiders of the pile which is probably a little out of touch. Admittedly they have lost 29 wickets in the form of Scott Kuggeleijn and Mohammad Nabi but the additions of Keemo Paul, Wahab Riaz and Alzarri Joseph strengthen their attack while Usman Qadir and Samit Patel give them good overseas options. Faf du Plessis and Tim David can provide substance with the bat alongside the power of Rakheem Cornwall and Andre Fletcher so the Kings’ position in the market could be a wrong one.
Betting
This looks a wide open competition to me but the 15/2 on the St Lucia Kings looks just a little bit too big. Admittedly they have to find 29 wickets from last season with Kuggeleijn and Nabi not here this season but they have brought plenty of bowling options in to counter that and although they have lost a shrewd cookie in Daren Sammy as captain, Faf du Plessis is no stranger to captaining winning sides and Sammy is still around the side in an upstairs role.
I think spin is going to be a big thing in this tournament and when he arrives Samit Patel will be handy while the likes of Tim David, Usman Qadir and Rakheem Cornwall offer plenty of spin options while Obed McCoy can be a spinner in all but name with his variety of slower balls. The only doubt over the Kings would be their lower order batting depth but that isn’t enough to sway me at a double figure price. I’ll take the Kings to win the crown this term.
Tips
Back St Lucia Kings to win CPL 2021 for a 1/10 stake at 8.50 with BetVictor
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