Zouks return to CPL

GROS ISLET, St Lucia (CMC):

Caribbean Premier League organisers have resurrected the St Lucia Zouks franchise for this year’s campaign starting next month.

The move comes following last week’s decision by organisers to dump St Lucia Stars from the September 4 to October 12 tournament.

Stars replaced the Zouks brand in 2017 after Jay Pandya’s Philadelphia-based Royal Sports Club purchased the operations at the end of the 2016 season.

In a sudden announcement last week, CPL announced that it had “terminated the participation agreement between it and Royal Sports Club”, and as a result, the company had no “right to operate a team to compete in the Caribbean Premier League tournament”.

At the time, CPL also said it was in the “process of establishing and operating a new franchise to be based in St Lucia” but have instead resorted to the Zouks brand.

Missed out

Zouks were one of six franchises that which competed in the inaugural CPL campaign back in 2013, along with Barbados Tridents, Jamaica Tallawahs, Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel (now Trinbago Knight Riders), Guyana Amazon Warriors, and the now defunct Antigua Hawksbills.

They missed out on the playoffs for the first three years of the tournament before finally qualifying in 2016.

Following the name change to Stars, the franchise endured its worst-ever run in 2017, failing to win a single game in the competition.

And last year, they slumped once again to miss out on the playoffs, even after acquiring Kieron Pollard from Barbados Tridents as captain.

Zouks will open their campaign against Amazon Warriors on September 5 at the Guyana National Stadium before travelling to Port-of-Spain three days later to clash with two-time reigning champions TKR at Queen’s Park Oval.