CARIBBEAN Premier League (CPL) Operations Director Michael Hall says that while talks are progressing to have a new franchise representing Jamaica in the tournament, there are still many considerations before it can become a reality.

Hall’s comments follow those of Jamaica Cricket Association President Dr Donovan Bennett who told the
Jamaica Observer earlier this week that Sabina Park is getting a new scoreboard and lights to host CPL Twenty20 (T20) games later this year. This is in light of negotiations progressing with an Indian Premier League entity to take control of the Jamaica brand.

Although Bennett aims to get Sabina Park ready for June, when the West Indies host Australia in one Test match and two T20 International games in Kingston, CPL will start on August 14.

But Hall warns that certain factors should be considered if a new team enters the league. One of these is when the negotiations occur.

“The timing of these discussions — when they intensified and advanced — may not lend itself to it happening this year but we remain confident that it is going to happen, because that’s just where the discussions are currently placed,” Hall told the Observer on Friday. “There are too many considerations around the funding, how you incorporate a new team into the framework, where you have to think about so many other things.”

That also includes the talent pool.

“You’re going from six to seven teams,” Hall said. “I’m not suggesting you don’t have enough cricketers in the West Indies to populate seven teams but you are thinning it out. Right now, it’s the cream of the West Indian players who get selected to play in the CPL. You’re diluting that by adding another team.

“So, we have to think about how we position things like the player draft, and retaining players. We have to do it in such a way that an additional team has an equal opportunity to have a team of relatively similar strength.”

Hall says Jamaica being the only team outside of the eastern Caribbean competing would also present logistical challenges.

“When you have the tournament concentrated in the eastern Caribbean the logistics are a lot easier,” he said. “It’s difficult, but it’s a lot easier. [With Jamaica], you’re talking about a leg of the tournament where instead of a half-hour flight to the next venue, it’s a two-and-a-half-hour flight. All of these things have to be taken into consideration. What does it mean? I don’t know for certain. Maybe it might mean that the tournament starts in Jamaica and then makes its way south — so, you finish the Jamaica leg of games first — to aid with the logistics.”

Hall says Jamaica means too much to cricket in the region for it to remain without a franchise.

“We [CPL] are just as anxious to have a team in Jamaica,” he said. “After all, Jamaica is the biggest market in the Caribbean and it’s almost a shame that it lost a franchise, to be quite frank.”

One of the key reasons cited for leaving by the owners of Jamaica’s last franchise, the Tallawahs, was a lack of financial support from the Government. That team has since relocated to Antigua and Barbuda, where it is now known as the Falcons. A new team would seek similar support from the Ministry of Sport.

“That is a critical element of the negotiations, which are still ongoing,” Hall said. “There are many parts involved in this. Part of the economic model for the CPL is that the franchises do receive some level of government support — and that would be critical to an interested party agreeing to come on board, that there would be some level of government support that would make it viable to them to make the investment and commitment needed to join the CPL.”

The Tallawahs represented Jamaica in the CPL from 2013 to 2023, winning the title in 2013, 2016 and 2022.