Amazon Warriors retain stars for 2020 season

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC):

Guyana Amazon Warriors have retained top players from their 2019 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) squad for this year’s season, which is set to start in August unless the COVID-19 pandemic forces it to be rescheduled or cancelled.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Nicholas Pooran, who was signed by Amazon Warriors as their marquee player last season, Shimron Hetmyer, Keemo Paul, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Anthony Bramble, Brandon King and Odean Smith have all returned for another season, according to the list of retained local and regional players released by the CPL Tuesday.

Guyanese Kevin Sinclair, an Emerging West Indies player, was the only new signing.

“We are extremely delighted that we were able to retain the majority of our local and regional players, including Nicholas Pooran and Brandon King, both of whom have been hailed by the cricket pundits as potential future stars of West Indies cricket and who were members of our team last year,” Guyana Amazon Warriors team operations manager, Omar Khan said.

He added that the franchise remains committed to the continued development of local and regional players.

“From the inception of the CPL we included young Guyanese players in our squad as part of the franchise’s mandate to provide opportunities to young aspiring Guyanese cricketers to assist in their overall development as professional cricketers,” Khan added, noting that Hetmyer, Paul and Rutherford had all benefited from such opportunities before becoming full-fledged members of the team.

This year, the six CPL franchise teams were allowed to retain as many players from their 2019 squads as they wished, transfer players to other teams and sign emerging players.

The retentions and signings of international players have not yet been announced. The CPL said they will be made public at a later date.

The CPL is scheduled to take place between August 19 and September 26 but tournament organisers are liaising with medical advisers and governments, given the COVID-19 situation, to decide whether it can proceed as planned, or at a different time.