(From left) Guyana Amazon Warriors team manager Omar Khan and coach Carl Hooper consult each other, while Jamaica Tallawahs assistant coach Junior Bennett share ideas with Tallawahs owners Manish Patel and Ron Parikh during the CPL player draft at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston yesterday. (PHOTO: KARL MCLARTY)
JAMAICA Tallawahs, the champions of the inaugural Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Twenty20 tournament staged in 2013, have secured the services of left-arm swing bowler Krishmar Santokie for the third edition of the regional showpiece.
The CPL player draft, held yesterday at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston, was open to media access and was also streamed live on television. The player value for the draft ranged from US$150,000 down to $5,000.
The 30-year-old Jamaican Santokie, a successful player for Guyana Amazon Warriors for the first two seasons of the CPL, was second on the wicket-taking list last campaign, while accounting for 17 victims.
The Tallawahs drafted Santokie in the ninth round for $15,000.
Legendary Sri Lanka batsman Mahela Jayawardene, 37, was one of the international players picked by the Tallawahs. The experienced Jayawardene, highly regarded for his silky stroke play and ability to score quickly, has notched two centuries in T20 cricket. He was picked in Round Three for $100,000.
The Tallawahs, coached by South African Mickey Arthur, had already retained four of their more prominent players from last season, including captain and marquee batsman Christopher Gayle.
The others are big-hitting all-rounder Andre Russell, wily fast bowler Jerome Taylor and wicketkeeper Chadwick Walton, who is also a quick-scoring top-order batsman.
Gayle was retained for $150,000; Russell for $80,000; Taylor ($40,000); and Walton ($20,000).
In the draft, a minimum of four players picked for each franchise must be registered to that entity’s local cricket board for the home territory.
While franchises could acquire up to a maximum of four international players as part of their squad, they were not forced to.
The 2015 CPL is scheduled to begin in June.
Jamaica Tallawahs, who lost at the semi-final stage last season, won the 2013 CPL T20 after beating Guyana Amazon Warriors in the grand final.
Barbados Tridents are the defending champions after winning the tournament last year.