Largest selection pool for 2018 CPL

The final list of players that have made themselves available for the 2018 Hero Caribbean Premier League has been sent to teams ahead of the draft which will take place in London on March 1.

The number of players that have put their names forward for the draft has increased, as has the number of countries from which the overseas players are from. There has been a 36 percent increase in player registrations overall and a 50 percent uplift in overseas players who have shown an interest in playing in Hero CPL in 2018.

A total of 227 overseas players have registered for the draft, an increase from 151 from last year. There are 121 West Indian cricketers that have put their names forward for selection, an increase from 107 from last year.

There are cricketers from 18 countries who will be in the player pool on draft day, with the most coming from Pakistan (53) and Sri Lanka (32). There are also cricketers from England, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Ireland, Canada, USA, Oman, Hong Kong, Scotland, Nepal, UAE and Kenya.

Some of the players that will be available for selection or retention this year will be Brendon McCullum, Chris Lynn, Mohammad Amir, D’Arcy Short, Kieron Pollard, Chris Gayle, Hashim Amla, Shahid Afridi and Usman Khawaja as well as English players Alex Hales and Adil Rashid.

This year the tournament window means that all West Indies national team players will be available for the tournament.

In addition to the players that have registered for the draft, or those that have been retained from last year, teams will also select a player from the ICC Americas region. These players can either be retained from last year or from the USA Cricket squad that has been taken part in the current Super50 competition.

Speaking about the interest from the international and Caribbean cricket community, Pete Russell, Chief Operations Officer of the Hero CPL, said: “We are delighted with the response that we have had to the Hero CPL draft this year. Every year we have seen an increase in the standard of players who want to be part of the Biggest Party in Sport, and 2018 is no different.”