BASSETERRE, St Kitts (CMC) — Expressed interest from investors could see the number of teams in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) being increased.

This word has come from CPL’s Director of Operations Michael Hall, who has said the addition of franchises to the T20 competition is a distinct reality.

Since its establishment in 2013, six teams have competed in the CPL: the Trinbago Knight Riders (formerly TT Red Steel), Jamaica Tallawahs, Guyana Amazon Warriors, Barbados Tridents, St Lucia Stars (formerly St Lucia Zouks) and the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots.

In 2015, the Patriots replaced the Antigua Hawksbills that competed in 2013 and 2014.

But Hall explained that the CPL was always looking to expand in an attempt to make the international tournament bigger and better.

“The CPL, since I joined five years ago, has always been in expansion mode. I know that there has been, at least I have heard that there has been some heightened interest from potential investors looking to create some other franchises.

“There is always that possibility. I know that discussions take place regularly and certainly the CPL as a league is in the market to have more teams. Whether that will happen in 2019 or 2020 it is hard to say, but we certainly would not be averse to increasing the number of teams in the league,” Hall said.

He said the tournament had continued to attract some of the best international players, with the highest number of interest being shown at this year’s draft.

“Ahead of the draft that was held in March of this year, we had more players registering for the draft than we ever had before.

“It is clear that the tournament is one that players have an interest in coming to play in and I think the players that we have here, obviously outside of Indian players who are not allowed to play in any other league except their own, I think you can point to the international players who have been here and say that we really do have some of the best of the best,” Hall said.