Explosive opener Johnson Charles and fast bowler Alzarri Joseph are among seven players retained by the Saint Lucia Kings ahead of the 2023 Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL).

Charles and Joseph are joined by Barbadian middle-order batsman Roston Chase, Roshon Primus, Jeavor Royal, Matthew Forde and McKenny Clarke. The Kings have also secured the services of Khary Pierre who has been transferred to the team from the Trinbago Knight Riders.

The tournament gets underway on 16 August with the final taking place on 24 September. There will be matches in Barbados, Guyana, St Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia and Trinidad & Tobago.

The overseas players and draft picks will be announced during the Republic Bank CPL draft show which will be broadcast at the end of June 2023.

The St Kitts & Nevis Patriots have retained d big hitters Evin Lewis and Andre Fletcher for their 2023 campaign in the Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL).

The Patriots will also retain middle-order batsman Sherfane Rutherford, all-rounder Dominic Drakes as well as fast bowler Sheldon Cottrell and wicketkeeper/batsman Joshua da Silva. The Patriots have also brought in Oshane Thomas who was transferred from the Barbados Royals.

The tournament gets underway on 16 August with the final taking place on 24 September. There will be matches in Barbados, Guyana, St Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia and Trinidad & Tobago.

The overseas players and draft picks will be announced during the Republic Bank CPL draft show which will be broadcast at the end of June.

Power hitter Shimron Hetmyer and the stylish Shai Hope are among the nine players retained by the Guyana Amazon Warriors for the upcoming Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League season set to get underway in August.

Along with Hetmyer and Hope, the Amazon Warriors have also announced the retention of fast bowler Odean Smith, all-rounders Romario Shepherd an Keemo Paul, spinner Gudakesh Motie as well as Chandrapaul Hemraj, Matthew Nandu and Junior Sinclair.

The overseas players and draft picks will be announced during the Republic Bank CPL draft show which will be broadcast at the end of June.

The tournament gets underway on 16 August with the final taking place on 24 September. There will be matches in Barbados, Guyana, St Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia and Trinidad & Tobago.

West Indies wicketkeeper/batsman Devon Thomas has been charged by the ICC with seven counts under the Anti-Corruption codes.

The ICC has provisionally suspended Thomas with immediate effect after charging him under their Anti-Corruption codes on behalf of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) and the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).

The charges involve "contriving or being party to an agreement to fix or attempt to fix, contrive or influence improperly the result, progress, conduct or other aspects of matches in the Lanka Premier League 2021," according to an ICC statement released on Tuesday.

He has also been charged under several other codes, including failing to disclose full details of an approach in the Lanka Premier League 2021, Abu Dhabi T10 2021 and CPL 2021.

The charges involved are:

Article 2.1.1 of the SLC Code - contriving or being party to an agreement to fix or attempt to fix, contrive or influence improperly the result, progress, conduct or other aspects of matches in the Lanka Premier League 2021.  

Article 2.4.4 of the SLC Code – failing to disclose to the Designated Anti-Corruption Official, without unnecessary delay, full details of an approach or invitations received to engage in Corrupt Conduct in the Lanka Premier League 2021.

Article 2.4.6 of the SLC Code - failing or refusing, without compelling justification, to cooperate with the Designated Anti-Corruption Official’s investigation by failing to provide accurately and completely any information and/or documentation requested by the Designated Anti-Corruption Official. 

Article 2.4.7 of the SLC Code – obstructing or delaying the Designated Anti-Corruption Official’s investigation into Corrupt Conduct, including (without limitation) concealing, tampering with or destroying any documentation or other information that may be relevant to that investigation and/or that may be evidence of or may lead to the discovery of evidence of Corrupt Conduct.

Article 2.4.4 of the ECB Code – failing to disclose to the Designated Anti-Corruption Official, without unnecessary delay, full details of an approach or invitations received to engage in Corrupt Conduct at the Abu Dhabi T10 2021.

Article 2.4.4 of the CPL Code – failing to disclose to the Designated Anti-Corruption Official, without unnecessary delay, full details of an approach or invitations received to engage in Corrupt Conduct in relation to the CPL 2021.

Article 2.4.2 of the CPL Code – failing to disclose to the Designated Anti-Corruption Official (without unnecessary delay) the receipt of any gift, payment, hospitality or benefit (a) that he knew or should have known was made in order to procure a breach of the CPL Code, or (b) could have brought the player or the game of cricket into disrepute.

The 33-year-old last played in December 2022 when he made his Test debut in Adelaide against Australia. Overall, he has played 21 ODIs, 12 T20Is and the one Test match.

Thomas has 14 days from 23 May 2023 to respond to the charges made against him.

Oshane Thomas has been transferred to the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots for the 2023 Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League. Thomas joins the Patriots from the Barbados Royals after two seasons with the franchise.

The Patriots will be Thomas’ third CPL team having also played for his home side, the Jamaica Tallawahs, from 2016 to 2020. Thomas has claimed 42 wickets at CPL at an average of 24.42 across his 33 matches.

 The complete squads for the Republic Bank CPL will be announced during the draft show which will be broadcast at the end of June.

Jamaica Scorpions Captain Rovman Powell said he hoped fans of the team enjoyed their winning the 2022 CG Insurance Super50 title on Saturday night which ended a decade-long wait for the Jamaicans, who had not won a regional title since 2012.

Five lucky winners and their friends won trips of a lifetime to watch the Hero Caribbean Premier League T20 finals between the Barbados Royals and the Jamaica Tallawahs at Providence Stadium in Guyana on Friday, September 30, 2022.

Known to not miss an opportunity to give customers more, Digicel and SportsMax hosted a stream-to-win competition giving every customer who purchased a Digicel Prime Bundle and streamed the CPL T20 games live from August 31 to September 16, a chance to win a trip to the finals.

The user from each participating market with the most time spent in-app during this period won the chance to catch the biggest party in sport, up close and personal.

Dennis Henry from Jamaica, Allan Sirjoo from Trinidad & Tobago, Carlton Alwin John from Guyana, Havie Stephen from St. Lucia and Kalia Huggins from St. Kitts & Nevis all emerged winners.

“It’s been an exciting CPL 2022 season! We are happy that the Jamaica Tallawahs came out on top to secure their third CPL title, bringing the trophy home to Jamaica,” said Tari Lovell, Head of Marketing, Digital Services, at Digicel Group.

“Thanks to the SportsMax app, I haven’t missed a moment of the action and I know our winners feel the same way too. I just want to congratulate them once more and thank them for choosing Digicel and SportsMax.”

This year the Barbados Royals, St. Kitts & Nevis Patriots, Saint Lucia Kings, Guyana Amazon Warriors, Jamaica Tallawahs and Trinbago Knight Riders all went head to head to battle for the coveted CPL T20 title.

Cricket fans were able to stream live matches all season long on the SportsMax app using their superfast Digicel LTE prime data bundles, or on the SportsMax channels on Digicel+.

Jamaica Tallawahs skipper Rovman Powell has revealed that the team drew motivation from what they regarded as an overall lack of respect for their ability.

Not many would have had the Tallawahs as favourites to claim the Caribbean Premier League title, particularly after a mid-tournament slump that saw them win just two of seven games.  On Friday, the Jamaica-based franchise proved their doubters wrong, however, after securing an 8-wicket win over the Barbados Royals.

The Royals, on the other hand, were the team of the tournament after winning 8 of 10 matches before automatically advancing to the final.  According to Powell, proving critics wrong was one of the team’s major motivations.

"Adjectives cannot describe how I feel right now. We endured a lot of disrespect throughout the tournament so to be here now is amazing. We used the disrespect that we endured as motivation. We were hungry,” Powell said, following the match.

“The guys were very hungry. I told them to hang in and that we have a lot of batters and we can get it. The first 100 that Brandon scored, it was in a losing cause and so the guys felt really hurt that it was in a losing cause but we told the guys that's what big boy cricket is about,” he added.

"So, to see Brooks score a 100 the other night in a win was special. I've captained a few teams and franchises before I captained Jamaica so I've been learning. Sometimes I feel down and out because I'm human, but my family rallied around me. I wanna say a special thanks to the Guyanese supporters.”

West Indies bowling legend and Jamaica Tallawahs coach Curtley Ambrose admits to taking special pride and pleasure in lifting the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) crown on Friday because of the team's status as underdogs.

The Jamaica-based franchise lifted the third title in its history and first in six years following a dominant 8-wicket win over the more heavily favoured Barbados Royals.  Heading into the final, the Royals were the league’s hottest team having lost just two of 10 games.

The Tallawahs on the other hand, who are conditioned by Ambrose and another Windies legend Shivnarine Chanderpaul, in the meantime, finished in the final qualifying spot.  At one point during the season, the Tallawahs lost 5 of 7 games.

“This means a lot as a group we came into the tournament as underdogs.  Not many gave us a chance to come out of the first round, let alone win it,” Ambrose said, following the team’s triumph.

“I haven’t sprinted for years and I found myself sprinting onto the field.  It was a wonderful performance thought and we were deserving winners,” he added.

“The thing about the Tallawahs is that we didn’t really on just one or two players.  At any given time, any player can step up.  We have depth in our batting, we have good bowling.  We stuck together as a family and we believed from day 1 that we could have won this championship and we did.”

Correction: The original story claimed that the Jamaica Tallawahs won its fourth CPL title on Friday, September 30 and it's first in four years. That was incorrect. The Tallawahs had previously won two titles (2013 and 2016). So the 2022 title was its first in six years. Sportsmax.TV apologises for the error.

Jamaica Tallawahs batsman Shamarh Brooks has hailed the influence of his teammates after smashing a crucial, maiden, T20 century against the Guyana Amazon Warriors, in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) on Wednesday.

In the must-win encounter, Brooks both treated and horrified home fans with some spectacular stroke-play, which underpinned the Jamaica franchise’s sizeable innings score of 226 for 4.  Personally, the batsman piled on an unbeaten 109 off 52 balls his best-ever return for the format.

The total, which included 7 fours and 8 sixes was instrumental in the team’s win as they later managed to restrict the Warriors to 189, which sealed the Jamaica franchise's return to the final for the first time in four years.

“I had lunch with Brandon King and he was very upset with the way I got out in the last innings, on 47.  So, he told me I needed to take it all the way down regardless of what I think, that’s what I did and it paid off,” Brooks said.

“Imad Wasim coming in at the end, the partnership with Ravi, Raymond as well, the guys just kept telling me to keep working it, just keep playing cricket shots and as we always say in the dressing room to keep making love to the cricket ball.”

The Tallawahs will face the Barbados Royals in Friday's final.

Jamaica Tallawahs captain Ravmon Powell insists the team must continue to target improvement ahead of a crucial match-up against the Guyana Amazon Warriors on Wednesday.

Mohammad Nabi slammed a crucial 31 and then took 3 for 10 as the Tallawahs secured a 33-run win over the St Lucia Kings, despite getting off to a slow start.

On Wednesday, the Tallawahs will look to add to that achievement when they face off against the hosts for a place in the final.  The two-time champions have not reached the final in four seasons but Powell believes that could be set to change.

 “We are ready, we are expecting a full house but we won’t pay any attention to that,” Powell said after the team’s win on Wednesday.

“We are not focused on that, all the guys need to do is to keep on improving.  We need to keep improving batting in the first ten overs and I think if we do that we will be on our way.”

The Jamaica Tallawahs will head to Qualifier 2 of the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) following a comprehensive defeat of the Saint Lucia Kings in the Eliminator on Tuesday.

The Saint Lucia Kings won the toss and opted to field first, and they took full advantage of that decision with a disciplined bowling display. 

The Tallawahs were never made to feel comfortable and but for some late order hitting from Mohammed Nabi they would have struggled to post a defendable total. 

However, their 148 proved more than enough as the Tallawahs produced a fantastic display in the field.

Nabi followed up his fireworks with the bat with some exceptionally parsimonious bowling to lead the Tallawahs to victory.

Earlier, the Kings had restricted the Tallawahs to a paltry 29-2 in the PowerPlay as Matthew Forde and Alzarri Joseph bowled exceptional lengths.

The Kings continued to take wickets at regular intervals and when Kesrick Williams removed Chris Green for two the Tallawahs found themselves 115-/8. However, Nabi lead the counterattack following that dismissal and finished on 31 off 15 balls to ensure the Tallawahs had something to bowl at.

In reply, the Kings got off to a good start reaching 54-2 at the end of the PowerPlay but when Du Plessis was dismissed for 41 in the eighth over the Kings found themselves in a hole from which they couldn’t recover.

The Tallawahs bowling unit all played their part as the Kings folded for 115 and exited the competition.

The Tallawahs' victory now means that they will battle the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the second qualifier on Wednesday night to determine who will contest the Hero CPL final against the Barbados Royals.

Scores: Jamaica Tallawahs 148-8 (Brooks 47, Nabi 31*; Wiese 3-19, Joseph 2-31) beat Saint Lucia Kings 115 (Du Plessis 41, Joseph 28*; Nabi 3-10, Allen 3-28) by 33 runs.

Guyana Amazon Warriors captain Shimron Hetmyer was full of praise for all-rounder Odean Smith who played a pivotal role for the team in a 12-run win over Jamaica Tallawahs in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) on Wednesday.

With the Warriors desperately needing a result, in their first match on home soil this season, Smith impacted the game decisively at both ends.  Batting first, the Warriors found themselves in deep trouble at 98 for 7 before Smith bludgeoned 42 from 16 and shared in a seventh-wicket partnership of 74 from 27 with Keemo Paul to push the team to a respectable 178 for 8.

At the other end, on the back of a defiant 104 from Brandon King, the Tallawahs seemed poised for an unlikely victory, needing just 20 off the last over.  King got things started off with a 6 but Smith shut the door, taking 2 wickets and effecting a runout for an overall 26 runs. He was named the man of the match.

“I actually had no idea we would have actually gotten that many I was actually thinking let’s get to 140, 150 and we’ll fight but as we saw today it was a fantastic innings from him (Smith), hats off to him,” Hetmyer said of Smith's contribution.

“He played one of the most special innings that I’ve had the pleasure of seeing and he’s one of those guys that anything can happen on a given day.  He’s just one of those special guys.”

One big-hitting left-hander Evin Lewis has surpassed another, Chris Gayle, for the most sixes scored in Caribbean Premier League (CPL) history.

On Sunday, the 30-year-old managed just 19 for St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in a lopsided 49-run loss to the St Lucia Kings but despite the defeat, there was a positive side.  Lewis's two sixes in the innings moved him level and then one clear of legendary T20 star Chris Gayle.

Gayle has remained at the top of the six-hitting leader board for some time on 172 from 85 matches.  Lewis's new high of 173 has come in 86 matches.  Kieron Pollard is in third place on 152.

Lewis, who was recently named to the West Indies World Cup squad, has long listed the big Jamaican as the player he idolized the most over the years.  Gayle arguably the most dominant batsman to ever play the format leads many of the boundary-hitting statistics, including the most sixes with 1056.