BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – None of this year’s Caribbean Premier League (CPL) games will be held in the US due to a poor turnout of spectators at those venues.
This was revealed by its chief operating officer Pete Russell during a press conference on Friday, who cited poor crowd support as the reason for the change to the competition which begins in September.
During the 2018 CPL, three games were played in Central Broward Stadium, Fort Lauderdale.
In addition, teams can only pick five international players this year and can only play four in their starting XI.
Russell said the decision to chop the number of international players allowed per team was in an effort to maintain the ‘Caribbeanness’ of the tournament.
The additional two players allowed last year will come from a West Indies development squad. The development squad is to be chosen by the Cricket West Indies selection panel.
In keeping with the idea of pushing development, at least one of those players will have to be part of any starting XI the franchises choose.
This year the CPL will for the first time bowl off in September.
Russell said with the Windies set to host India between during July and August, the move to push back the competition was to ensure the availability of all West Indian players.
“The September month allows us a clean window of action because we want all of our West Indian stars available,” he said.
