New franchise to replace Hawksbills in CPL 2015

A newly formed St Kitts and Nevis franchise will replace Antigua Hawksbills in the Caribbean Premier League 2015. The tournament's chief operating officer, Pete Russell, told Trindad Express the Hawksbills franchise had not been terminated but was left out of this year's competition as the format and the tournament window provided by the WICB could not accommodate seven teams. The third season of the CPL will be played between June 21 and July 26.

"We haven't terminated the (Antigua) franchise," Russell told Trinidad Express. "The rationale behind it is we have a window which the WICB gave us within which we have to play all the games. It's impossible with the window for us to play more than six teams.

"Each team will play ten games. That's the first time that's happening. Each team will play each other twice. In our view, the format is as it should be. We couldn't fit seven teams into the format."

The Hawksbills franchise, which was earlier sponsored by Virgin Atlantic, does not have an owner and this was another factor that went against them, according to Russell. He said the Antigua and Barbuda government had been made aware of the fact that the island could lose the team.

"The reason for doing what we've done, we got to make sure of the long-term sustainability of the league," he said. "The sustainability of the team is ensured by each team having its own owner.

"We've been speaking to the government for some time. They've known that this was a possibility. We've given them the option as to how they could have kept the team, that was obviously getting an owner there. For 2015 we felt St Kitts was the right move."

The CPL revealed that the St Kitts and Nevis franchise would be taking over the players from the Hawksbills franchise and the new team announced its list of four retained players for the forthcoming season.

Pacer Carlos Brathwaite, wicketkeeper Devon Thomas, allrounder Orlando Peters and offspinner Justin Athanaze who were part of the Hawksbills squad last season, were retained by St Kitts and Nevis. Marlon Samuels, who captained the team last year and was a domestic icon player for the franchise, was not retained. Shoaib Malik and Kevin Pietersen were the only foreign players to be retained by their respective franchises, Barbados Tridents and St Lucia Zouks. The CPL draft will be held on February 5.