When it was announced that five matches would be played at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground, St. Lucians were understandably excited to experience a new look St. Lucia Kings slugging away in front of a home crowd. Many were unprepared for the less than satisfying showing that has enfolded.
First and foremost, it has to be said that many of the echoing criticisms leveled at the players are grossly unfair and unwarranted.
It is clear that the team’s new look is littered with exceedingly young talent which seemed to have been the preference of St. Lucia Kings Head Coach Daren Sammy. One would expect that with his experience at cricket’s top level, captaining all levels of the West Indies game and winning two major titles in the process, he knows what he is doing. The only thing that was left was for St. Lucians to “trust the process.” That trust, however, seem to be widely lacking.
In their first five matches of the 2026 Caribbean Premier League {CPL}, The St. Lucia Kings won their first match on foreign soil, by four runs over the Antigua and Barbuda Falcons. When they got to St. Lucia fortunes changed, loosing to St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots by five wickets before meeting Antigua and Barbuda Falcons again, exacting revenge to win by 3 wickets in a rain affected affair where they only needed to score 52 runs under the Duckworth Lewis System. In the next two matches, they lost to the Barbados Tridents by 9 runs and then Guyana Amazon Warriors by 7 wickets.
One extremely satisfying highlight was Ackeem Auguste’s game high 63 off 34 balls in the Kings loss to the Tridents, a feature that speaks volumes about potential that exist within the team.
The big question on many minds though is whether Sammy and company got it wrong with their selections and omissions. Even without knowing the back story, questions were raised about the disappearance of some top performers, most notably St. Lucian Johnson Charles who enjoyed a win over the Kings playing with the Patriots last week.
The other notable absentee was Tim Seifert. Fortunately, Seifert is back after concluding an impressive showing in The Hundred Men’s Competition scoring a game high 72 in his last T20 game on August 16th for the Super Giants in London to help earn him the MVP trophy.
The question again. Did Sammy and company get it wrong with their selections and omissions?
Is it a question of too many young talents and not enough experienced heads.
Is it too early to pass judgement on the team? Can they recover with their remaining games?
It is all too easy to criticize the team and discount the glaring possibilities. It is true and even a bit concerning that we have lost the services of Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Alzarri Joseph, Khary Pierre, and Shadrack Descartes but what is encouraging is that we gained, in particular, three bright young St. Lucians, Ackeem August, McKenny Clarke and Keon Gaston as well as Jewel Andrew, Kamil Pooran, Darron Nedd, Joshua Bishop, Damion Joachim, Amari Goodridge, and Johann Jeremiah.
Irrespective of the many impressions of the Kings selections and results, one can hardly deny the obvious excitement that engulfs the encounters they have been involved in thus far in this 2026 CPL, definitely not for the faint of heart.
It is advisable that we stay focused to what is our St. Lucia Kings, if not just for the sheer excitement of the games currently, for a future that promises to have its submissions in the T20 history books.