Six associate players to get a CPL look-in

USA wicketkeeper-batsman Steven Taylor has been selected as one of six Associate players from the ICC Americas region to get a tryout with a Caribbean Premier League franchise in June. The other players were Bermuda wicketkeeper Christian Burgess as well as Canada's Nikhil Dutta, Nitish Kumar, Farhan Malik and Satsimranjit Dhindsa.

The six players were part of a 14-man ICC Americas development squad that participated in an eight-day training camp in Barbados in December. The final six players were decided through performances in practice matches at the camp as well as for their respective national teams.

They will be competing with four West Indies U-19 players in each of their respective CPL franchise squads during the tryout phase in June. Only one player from each group will be given a CPL contract for their franchise for the 2015 CPL season.

"I'm really excited about the opportunity to impress the CPL coaches and players and hopefully prove that North America can be a recruiting ground for the CPL and other first class teams," Taylor said in a CPL press release. As recently as 2013, Taylor scored 162 off 102 balls in a USA win over Nepal, who will be participating in the next edition of the WCL Championship.

Kumar, Dutta and Dhindsa were all a part of Canada's squad at ICC WCL Division Two in Namibia last month. Kumar scored the only century at the tournament, 104 off 106 balls in a win over Uganda and was Canada's leading scorer at the tournament.

Dutta, an offspinning allrounder, and fast bowler Dhindsa contributed eight and six wickets respectively at the tournament while Dhindsa's handy lower-order batting saw him top Canada's averages at the tournament with 108.00 after he was only dismissed once in five innings with a high of 43 not out.

Burgess was Bermuda's leading scorer at WCL Division Three in Malaysia last October with 166 runs and was the only Bermuda player to score more than 100 runs on aggregate at the tournament.