De Kock and Stubbs among foreign talent secured by Royals and Patriots

Source: Trinidad Guardian

CAS­TRIES, St Lu­cia - Two-time cham­pi­ons Bar­ba­dos Roy­als (for­mer­ly Tri­dents) and 2021 cham­pi­ons St Kitts & Nevis Pa­tri­ots have con­firmed their re­tained play­ers for this year's Caribbean Pre­mier League (CPL) Twen­ty20 tour­na­ment.

CPL or­gan­is­ers an­nounced on Fri­day that sev­er­al play­ers cur­rent­ly fea­tur­ing in the ICC Men's Twen­ty20 World Cup in the Caribbean and the Unit­ed States for West In­dies and vis­it­ing teams are named in the two sides that will fea­ture in the com­ing sea­son sched­uled to played from Au­gust 29 to Oc­to­ber 6.

The Roy­als have re­tained 14 play­ers for the com­ing sea­son, in­clud­ing West In­dies Twen­ty20 In­ter­na­tion­al cap­tain Rov­man Pow­ell, and T20 World Cup team­mate and left-arm pac­er Obed Mc­Coy, and they will have three spots to fill at the CPL Draft in Ju­ly.

Huge­ly ex­pe­ri­enced all-rounder Ja­son Hold­er, a late with­draw­al from the World Cup squad, and left-arm pace bowl­ing com­pa­tri­ot Ra­mon Sim­monds are al­so re­turn­ing for the Roy­als.

Ex­plo­sive South Africa bat­ting duo, Quin­ton De Kock and David Miller will head­line the for­eign con­tin­gent for the Roy­als, along with left-arm spin bowl­ing na­tion­al team­mate, Ke­shav Ma­haraj.

Sri Lan­ka off-spin­ner Ma­heesh Theek­shana and Afghanistan pac­er Naveen-ul-Haq com­plete the for­eign tal­ent list con­firmed at this time.

In ad­di­tion, the Roy­als have al­so re­tained burly off-spin­ner Rah­keem Corn­wall, whose epic bat drop af­ter scor­ing a scin­til­lat­ing hun­dred against the Pa­tri­ots last sea­son at Kens­ing­ton Oval blew up so­cial me­dia.

West In­dies left-hand­ed bats­man Al­ick Athanaze, Crick­et West In­dies Acad­e­my cap­tain Ny­eem Young, and for­mer West In­dies Un­der-19 pair of Kevin Wick­ham and Ri­val­do Clarke have al­so made the cut.

The Pa­tri­ots con­firmed that 13 play­ers will be re­tained from last sea­son, and they will have four spots to fill in the Draft, and they will be hop­ing for far bet­ter re­sults.

West In­dies World Cup duo of Sher­fane Ruther­ford and An­dre Fletch­er have been in­clud­ed, and out-of-favour in­ter­na­tion­al open­er, Evin Lewis al­so makes the cut.

The Pa­tri­ots have al­so se­cured the ser­vices of Ja­maican pac­er Odean Smith, who has trans­ferred from reign­ing cham­pi­ons, Guyana Ama­zon War­riors, as well as left-arm pac­er Do­minic Drakes, son of for­mer Bar­ba­dos and West In­dies all-rounder Vas­bert Drakes and Test wick­et­keep­er-bats­man Joshua Da Sil­va.

Crick­et West In­dies duo of left-arm spin­ner Ash­mead Nedd and fast bowler Jo­hann Layne com­plete the Caribbean tal­ent list for the Pa­tri­ots.

Ex­cit­ing South Africa bat­ting duo of Rilee Rossouw and Tris­tan Stubbs are two mem­bers of the for­eign con­tin­gent for the Pa­tri­ots that al­so in­cludes leg-spin bowl­ing Sri Lan­ka World Cup cap­tain Wanin­du Hasaranga, his pace bowl­ing team­mate Nuwan Thusara, and Zim­bab­we in­ter­na­tion­al Sikan­dar Raza, who cap­tained the St Lu­cia Kings in a few match­es last sea­son.