WITH a Jamaican franchise set to rejoin the Caribbean Premier League this summer, Jamaican stars Andre Russell, Rovman Powell and Brandon King are being lined up for a homecoming as new owners Kingsmen Sports Enterprise prepare to challenge for the title immediately.

The 2026 CPL Twenty20 season, set to run from early August to September 20, will mark the return of a Jamaican franchise after a two-year absence, following the successful takeover by United States-based Kingsmen, owned by Pakistan-born businessman Fawad Sarwar.

Kingsmen will have to build a squad from scratch as most of the players who represented the Jamaica Tallawahs in the past have moved on to other teams, which includes Russell, Powell and King.

Two-time T20 World Cup winner Russell left the Tallawahs ahead of the 2022 season to join the Trinbago Knight Riders, where he won the title last season.

West Indies T20 middle order batsman Powell, who guided the Tallawahs to the title in 2022, has captained the Barbados Royals for the last three seasons.

Windies T20 Vice-Captain Brandon King, who led the Tallawahs in 2023 before their hiatus, also played for the Royals in 2025, having joined the Antigua & Barbuda Falcons in 2024.

Last year 37-year-old Russell said he was interested in ending his CPL career with the Jamaican franchise, while Powell told the Jamaica Observer in 2023 “hopefully” he will be “back home”.

Though not revealing speficic targets, Kingsmen representative Faisal Mirza told the Observer that the Jamaican trio would be a key part of the team they’re trying to build.

“I don’t want to make promises that feel like a lot of bluster and hot air but I think what’s fair and the way we approach any of our franchises is we want to build the best team for the upcoming season and for the future,” he said. “I think, just in conversation, I’ve mentioned that two of them [Russell and Powell], Brandon being the third — these guys are, of course, very important to any team that they become a part of.

“We want to make sure that we bring the right kind of people. And that to us as a group is almost imperative, if not paramount, to building the right kind of team and the right kind of culture. We would like to be future-forward and look at not just this season but, going forward, who are the best guys who think the same way, who sort of resonate with the kind of thinking that we have at Kingsmen to better enable us going forward — and I think that’s how we’re going to eventually make those sort of recruitment calls and try to get in the best guys for the team.”

Mirza, though, says negotiations are underway to add Jamaican talent to the squad and technical staff ahead of the CPL draft in the coming months.

“There’ve already been some approaches from local players — some sons of the soil who want to come back to Jamaica and represent the franchise once again — so I think we will most likely find ourselves in a good position to go into the draft with some solid local, as well as overseas, competitors on the board already, with foreign as well as local coaches bringing up the support staff,” he said.

“So I’m pretty confident and feel pretty bullish right now — even though it’s been about a week since it started — that we can put together a squad that [Jamaicans] will be proud of.”

Although newcomers to the CPL, Mirza says the Kingsmen have no plans to ease their way in and are targeting a straight push for the championship.

“We want to throw down from day one, ball one — that’s what the Tallawahs spirit is. I don’t think any of us, neither the fans nor us as managers and administrators of the team, would be satisfied with anything less,” he said.

“I don’t think we give us any sort of leeway, any sort of runway time to learn the ropes; it’s got to be on the fly. That’s the beauty of cricket, right, and it changes with every ball, it changes with every stroke, and that’s the way we’re going to adapt. We want to build a championship culture, we want to build a championship team, and it starts today and not next year.”

Despite their two-year absence the Jamaican franchise remains the second most successful team with three titles — in 2013, 2016 and 2022.

Andre Russell (Photo: CPL via Getty Images)

Captain Rovman Powell poses with the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) trophy after Jamaica Tallawahs won the 2022 edition.

Brandon King of Jamaica Tallawahs celebrates reaching his century during the Caribbean Premier League match versus Guyana Amazon Warriors at Providence Stadium in Guyana on September 21, 2022. (Photo: CPL via Getty Images)

MIRZA… we want to build the best team for the upcoming season and for the future