The St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots will be opening the 2019 Hero Caribbean Premier League against defending champions Trinbago Knight Riders in the first match of the tournament on September 4.
The Patriots will however be sans star batsman Chris Gayle who flew the coop for his home team the Jamaica Tallawahs in May, after just two seasons with the SKN franchise.
CPL announced its 2019 fixtures on Tuesday, and so far, only the games in Barbados, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Kitts & Nevis and Trinidad & Tobago have been confirmed. The semi finals and finals will be hosted in Trinidad on October 8 and 12th. The 34-match season was scheduled to begin in August but was pushed forward to avoid a clash with India’s tour of the West Indies.
St. Kitts and Nevis has drawn five regular season matches at Warner Park Stadium- following the opening match against Trinidad on their home turf, Patriots will face Jamaica Tallawahs on September 10; Barbados Tridents on the 11th; Guyana Amazon Warriors on the 14th, St Lucia Stars on the 15th and Trinbago Knight Riders on the 17th.
After dismal performances over the years, the SKN Patriots rose to the number 2 spot in 2017 with Gayle at batting helm, but fell to third position in 2018.
The Franchise, which was purchased by City Sports, Hong Kong in February, added several new players to its 2019 roster during the CPL players’ draft in May.
Minister of Sport, Deputy Prime Minister Shawn Richards told Freedom FM he is excited that St. Kitts and Nevis was able to secure the five matches as CPL remains one of the biggest parties in sport. He said while local fans may not be satisfied with the make-up of the team this year, he is confident that they will turn out in their numbers to all five matches at Warner Park.