THE 2017 edition of the Hero Caribbean Premier League will bowl off on Friday, August 4 with a match between the Saint Lucia Stars and the Trinbago Knight Riders at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in Gros Islet.
The finals have been set for Saturday, September 9 in a country and venue to be announced.
The 34-game competition, which will be staged in seven countries over a six-week period, will also include games in Florida in the United States.
According to organizers, there will be the usual blend of day and night games, with the starting times to be announced shortly. The Saint Lucia opener will lead into two keenly-contested double-headers in Central Broward Stadium in Lauderhill, Florida on the weekend of August 5 and 6, where Guyana Amazon Warriors will face Chris Gayle’s Saint Kitts and Nevis Patriots and Barbados Tridents squaring off against reigning champions Jamaica Tallawahs in back-to-back games.
The action will then move to Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago which will run simultaneously with the Saint Lucia leg of matches — from the week August 7-15 — before Guyana and Saint Kitts and Nevis host the middle legs from August 17-23.
As the race for one of the coveted finals berths heats up, the final rounds of matches will be held in Jamaica from August 25-September 1, and Barbados from August 29-September 3.
Finals week will begin with a play-off on Tuesday, September 5 before the two eliminators and the finals, which will round off the 2017 tournament on Saturday, September 9.
“We are delighted to announce the dates of the Hero CPL fixtures earlier than usual this year which we believe will enable fans, sponsors, media and all of our key stakeholders ample opportunity to plan their trips and holidays for the biggest party in sport,” said Hero CPL CEO, Damien O’Donohoe.
“Last year was the tournament’s biggest, with a global TV and online audience of almost 150 million and in the region of 250,000 fans attending our games. We are determined to enhance the fan participation across each venue, ensuring an even better experience for the many thousands of fans who will descend on each of our seven host countries.”
The CPL CEO said the CPL has possibly the best talent available across the six contending teams.
“There have been a lot of eye-catching transfers, with Chris Gayle, Lendl Simmons and Dwayne Smith moving sides in the closed season and the likes of Afghanistan’s exciting leg-spinner Rashid Khan, Chris Morris and Kane Williamson set to make their tournament bows. We are excited to welcome such a high calibre of talented, local and international players to the Hero CPL in just a few months’ time,” O’Donohoe said.
“It is our pledge to make the 2017 Hero CPL the ‘Year of the Fan’ and there’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes to showcase all that is great about Caribbean culture, society and sport around the world,” he added.