A new season of the Caribbean Premier League begins this week with the CPL 2023 bringing the party back for the remainder of the month and into September as the six franchises once again go in search of glory.
The Jamaica Tallawahs achieved that glory last season when they took care of the Barbados Royals in the final and the men from Kingston will be looking to make a successful defence of the title. The other five teams will be motivated to deny them that chance.
Recent Winners
2022 – Jamaica Tallawahs
2021 – St Kitts and Nevis Patriots
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 across five islands with Jamaica continuing to miss out hosting the event. At the end of the league phase the top four teams go into the latter stages with first playing second for a direct route into the final before third play fourth in the first knockout game. The loser of the first match faces the winner of the second to determine the other finalist. The final of the competition takes place on September 24.
The Teams
As ever in a new season of the Caribbean Premier League it is the Trinbago Knight Riders who begin the tournament as the 9/4 favourites to be crowned champions. They will need to operate a whole lot better than last year though as they could only finish bottom of the table on that occasion. They have gone and got Dwayne Bravo back for this instalment of the competition while Nicholas Pooran, Rilee Rossouw, Kieron Polland and Andre Russell is as powerful a middle order as you’ll find anywhere in franchise cricket. They don’t lack for bowling options either so Trinbago do look worthy favourites this time around.
The St Lucia Kings are next in the betting at 9/2. When you consider the strength of this island it is a huge surprise that they are yet to get their hands on this title and that is a run they will be looking to end over the course of this campaign. They have packed their side with batting depth, which is understandable given that their home ground is one of the best batting tracks in the competition, and if that batting comes off then they are entitled to go well. They will need their key bowlers to have a good tournament though if they are going to finally become the champions.
The defending champions Jamaica Tallawahs are 5/1 to keep hold of their title. You have to go back to 2018 for the last time this tournament was successfully defended so history is against the Tallawahs but if they do go down it certainly won’t be for a lack of firepower with the bat. They look very strong in that department and with two top level overseas seamers and a host of spin options it certainly wouldn’t be a major surprise Jamaica to be there or thereabouts when the knockout stages of this event take place. They were able to ignore a lack of home advantage last season so there is a lot to like about the Tallawahs here.
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The Guyana Amazon Warriors are nearly always the nearly men of this tournament having finished second in five of the nine seasons that this format of the competition has been in existence for. They are 11/2 to finally go one better and win the trophy for the first time and are a side who have plenty of big hitting depth lower down their batting order so if their openers can get them off to fast starts then they could be a problem for plenty of teams. There will be a lot of sixes and a lot of high scoring matches involving Guyana but whether they can put it all together when it really counts remains to be seen.
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots are also 11/2 to win the competition and they have firepower to burn with the bat, although with their home matches at Warner Park that is certainly no bad thing. The interesting thing will be whether the funds spent on loading up with the bat has come at the detriment to what they can offer with the ball. They will need the likes of Sheldon Cottrell and Oshane Thomas to be at their best up front to give their spinners the chance of keeping them in the game, unless they can win a lot of tosses and chase, which might be asking too much.
The 6/1 outsiders for the competition this season are the beaten finalists of a year ago in the Barbados Royals. That feels like a big price for a team who look to be nicely balanced although that probably only rings true if the likes of Rovman Powell and Jason Holder can show good form to keep the side balanced. There is depth to the Royals’ batting and I always think that is a huge thing in this tournament but that hasn’t come at the expense of the bowling, especially if Kyle Mayers can get some cheap overs out of the way with the ball.
Betting
Initially I thought that the Barbados Royals had a real good shot at this but they are going to have players coming and going throughout the tournament and I’m never much of a fan of that so instead my attention turns to the defending champions Jamaica Tallawahs who with the exception of Rovman Powell haven’t really lost anyone and they have brought Ben Cutting in to be that brutal hitting finisher who bowls a few overs.
The key for me with the Tallawahs is they have a whole host of spin options, which will be crucial when we get to the back end of the tournament and into the finals in Guyana, and in Mohammad Amir, who is a great pickup for the whole season, and Naveen-ul-Haq they have two very good new ball and death bowlers, albeit the latter will depart for the Asia Cup at some point. Jamaica never lack for batting depth and with the motivation of wanting to hang onto the trophy they look the pick of the outright market at 5/1.
Tips
Back Jamaica Tallawahs to win CPL 2023 for a 2/10 stake at 6.00 with William Hill
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