Betting is wide-open ahead of the start of the fourth Caribbean Premier League T20, despite there only being six teams involved.
Interest in cricket is enjoying a resurgence in the West Indies after their T20 World Cup triumph, especially in shorter formats of the game, and tickets for forthcoming Caribbean Premier League matches have been selling well with some of the world’s top T20 players having been signed up.
Chris Gayle is always box office and is captaining the Jamaica Tallawahs. West Indies team-mate Andre Russell, South African fast bowler Dale Steyn and former Sri Lanka batsman Kumar Sangakarra are other star names on the Tallwahs roster and they’ll be looking to add to their success in the inaugural competition in 2013 having lost in the semi-finals in the last two years.
Barbados Tridents, with a wealthy new sponsor, won the Caribbean Premier League in 2014 and Kieron Pollard’s side can call on the likes of AB de Villers and Shoaib Malik this year. The rebranded Trinbago Knight Riders look strong as Dwayne Bravo well get good support from Windies team-mates Sunil Narine and Sulieman Benn. New Zealanders Brendon McCullum and Colin Munro offer powerful hitting in the middle order and Hashim Amla has been playing for SouthAfrica in the Tri-Nations series in the Caribbean.
Tribago are a best 4/1 with Boylesports, who are also best odds on the Tridents, the Tallawahs and the ST LUCIA ZOUKS.
I really like the make-up of the Zouks this year. They have a nice blend of local talent and experienced overseas players including Australians Michael Hussey and Shane Watson and big-hitting South African David Miller. Windies internationals based in St Lucia include captain Darren Sammy, Andre Fletcher, Denesh Ramdin, Fidel Edwards and Johnson Charles.
It’s about time the Zouks were putting themselves on the map in this competition having failed to make even the semi-finals so far and they look to have a much stronger squad than the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, who finished bottom of the pile last year in their inaugural season, and the Guyana Amazon Warriors. The Warriors are only 6/1 with Ladbrokes but have failed to attract many star players this year having been beaten finalists in two of the three previous competitions.
Caribbean Premier League Best Odds
Barbados Tridents, St Lucia Zouks and Trinbago Knight Riders (4/1), Jamaica Tallwahs (9/2), Guyana Amazon Warriors (6/1), St Kitts and Nevis Patriots (13/2)
