CPL DAILY: Tournament favourites get 'Biggest Party In Sport' under way in Trinidad

The Cricketer looks ahead to all the action on the field, and runs down recent developments off it, ahead of the first day of the Caribbean Premier League

It’s day one of the 2020 Caribbean Premier League, and the long wait is over for franchise T20 cricket fans.

It has been five long months since the Pakistan Super League was called to an abrupt halt as the world learned to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, with the Indian Premier League and T20 Blast pushed back in the interim.

Now, however, the global landscape is such that the short format can return, and it does so behind closed doors in Trinidad.

So, what can we look forward to on the first matchday of the tournament?

Who is playing?

The competition opens with the match-up most likely to be replicated in the final - Trinbago Knight Riders against Guyana Amazon Warriors.

The two teams face off at 10am local time - that’s 3pm in the UK - and there are a host of household names on show.

For Trinbago, read West Indian heroes Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine, and bombastic New Zealand opener Colin Munro.

For Guyana, read old-timer Imran Tahir, newcomer Brandon King, and New Zealand’s reliable batsman Ross Taylor.

Guyana won 11 matches in a row last year before slipping up against Barbados Tridents in the final, and will be desperate to lay down a statement of intent against the competition favourites.

Trinbago, though, seem extraordinarily strong - especially given the limitations of a salary cap. It promises to be a lively start to the tournament.

Later in the day, it’ll be time for the defending champions to open their campaign.

Barbados take on a St Kitts & Nevis Patriots outfit who are not expected to challenge near the top of the table in 2020.

The Tridents are stacked with solid players with relatively modest T20 records - Jason Holder, Shai Hope and Ashley Nurse, for example - but they also possess Rashid Khan. And, as analyst Jarrod Kimber said in The Cricketer’s preview podcast, with the Afghanistan allrounder in your T20 team “it’s very hard to lose”.

That one gets under way at 7.30pm in Trinidad, which means you’ll have to stay up until 10.30pm in the UK to catch it.

^{Dwayne Bravo}

Anyone in particular I should watch out for?

Guyana’s line-up is absolutely rammed with talented young West Indians.

The CPL is the breeding ground for some of the most expensive and most sought-after players in world T20 cricket, and this lot are the next generation.

So, if you get the opportunity to watch any of Chandrapaul Hemraj, Odeon Smith, Sherfane Rutherford, Keemo Paul or Rosario Shepherd in action - or several of them - take it, crack open a beer, and enjoy a sneak peek into the next decade of short-format cricket.

On the flipside, Pravin Tambe - who may or may not been included in the Trinbago XI, is a 41-year-old Indian spinner who is showing that the sport is not only a young man’s game. Alongside Bravo and Narine, he certainly drags the average age of the Knight Riders’ squad right up.

And finally a nod to Chris Green, the Australian allrounder who will be back bowling competitively for the first time since being called up for an illegal action during the Big Bash.

At 26, he’s got the burden of captaincy of the Amazon Warriors to deal with too - not that it’s hampered his recent career. 

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What’s the story off the field?

Well, primarily it’ll be how the CPL deals with not having any fans inside its venues for the first time.

Covid-19 has restricted organisers to behind-closed-doors cricket, and that has meant an awful lot of extra work for chief operating officer Pete Russell and his team.

The self-titled Biggest Party In Sport will attempt to recreate that famous atmosphere using digital effects and filtered crowd noise. Look out, too, for the competition’s cheerleaders still making an appearance - CPL filmed a series of performances against a green screen in advance for use during matches.

Ensuring the players have stuck by coronavirus-safe measures cannot have been an easy task - many coming from outside the Caribbean had to quarantine for two weeks before flying out to Barbados for a connecting charter to Trinidad (whose borders are technically closed), and then a further fortnight in a hotel. Of that second week, several days were spent in solitary confinement, with players brought meals to their hotel rooms and no social interaction allowed.

There were plenty of itchy feet by the time training began, but it has hardly been an ideal build-up for elite athletes.

There have been a handful of failed tests, which have led to the exclusion of players and officials from the tournament, and one missed flight - Fabian Allen will not participate after failing to get on the charter from Bridgetown.

Predictions?

Trinbago to nudge out Guyana in a tight contest.

Barbados to make light work of St Kitts.

Where can I watch the games?

Sky Sports have the rights in the UK and are promising to show all 33 CPL fixtures on their various platforms.

You can find out more, and discover which channels are carrying the CPL elsewhere in the world, by clicking here.

What’s the weather going to be like?

There’ll be a chance of a thunderstorm over Trinidad throughout the day, with chances of precipitation around 50 per cent for both matches. Temperatures will top 30 degrees at times.

The Cricketer's coverage of the CPL comes in collaboration with the Caribbean Cricket Podcast