Caribbean Premier League: Andre Russell, Jason Holder add glamour to T20 meet

The return of West Indian captain Jason Holder and Andre Russell, one of the top-notch T20 players around the world, will add glamour to the Caribbean Premier League starting August 8.

The 34-match season will culminate with the final on September 16. For the third successive year, the tournament will return to the USA, with three matches taking place at the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida.

The first match will see last year’s winners, Trinbago Knight Riders, take on St Lucia Stars while the Guyana Amazon Warriors will get underway against St Kitts & Nevis Patriots. Game five will see a repeat of last year’s final with the Knight Riders taking on the Patriots.

This year the semi-final and final will be in Trinidad with the venue for the first two knockout matches yet to be confirmed.

Jason Holder will return to the Caribbean Premier League this season (AFP)

Jason Holder, the Windies Test and ODI captain, is looking forward to returning to the Caribbean Premier League. “It feels great! To come back home to play for the Barbados Tridents, it’s a pleasing feeling for me. And it’ll be my first time leading in T20 cricket and I’m really looking forward to it, I think it’s something that will help improve my captaincy on a whole.

“So, it will be good to mingle with guys like Hashim Amla and Martin Guptill. We’ve got overseas stars that will lend their experience and help me along the way as well so I’m really looking forward to that and hopefully Barbados Tridents could again be very, very successful in the CPL.”

This year will also see the return of Indian Premier League star Andre Russell to the Jamaica Tallawahs, and the most explosive T20 cricketer in the world is excited about being back at this innovative T20 tournament.

“I cannot wait to be back playing for Jamaica Tallawahs. It will be great to link up with all the players at the Tallawahs and hopefully we can play some exciting cricket again this year and bring the CPL trophy back to Jamaica in 2018,” said Russell, who played for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2018.