CPL Tweaks Dates To Accommodate IPL 2021 In UAE

Cricket West Indies (CWI) president Ricky Skerritt has confirmed that the dates of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) had been tweaked in consultation with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to accommodate the remaining matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which was suspended on May 4 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

While earlier, the CPL was scheduled to commence on August 28 and end on September 19, it will now be played at St Kitts and Nevis between August 26 and September 15.

Several cricketers, who play in the Caribbean league, will now be able to fly to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to compete for their contracted teams in the IPL, which has a playing window between September 19 and October 15.

A CWI statement said on Tuesday that, "President of Cricket West Indies, Ricky Skerritt, has confirmed that CWI, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) engaged in talks for a tweaked CPL schedule to accommodate the second phase of the Indian Premier League (IPL)."

"The CPL which was originally scheduled to commence on August 28th will now be played in St Kitts and Nevis between August 26 and September 15."

Had the dates not been altered, some of the well-known IPL stars such as South Africans Faf du Plessis, Chris Morris and Imran Tahir would have had a hard time choosing between the CPL and IPL as the dates of the two tournaments would have clashed.

West Indies' Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle, Jason Holder, Nicholas Pooran and Shimron Hetmyer are among West Indian IPL stars who also play in the CPL.

Shakib Al Hasan and Anrich Nortje are the other foreign stars in the CPL, who are also part of IPL franchises.

"Both IPL and CPL are important to CWI, to our cricketers and to fans. CWI's role was to facilitate arrangements for a non-overlapping and smooth transition from one tournament to the next. Cricket administrators must collaborate if cricket is to survive the risks and costs of Covid-19," Skerrit had said in a recent interview.

All 33 matches of the CPL will be played at Warner Park with a cap of 50 per cent capacity for vaccinated spectators.