No foreign players for Scorpions

The Jamaica Scorpions Franchise will have a totally local composition after the 2020 Cricket West Indies (CWI) Professional Player Draft for the Colonial Medical Insurance Super50 Cup and the Professional Cricket League Regional Four-Day Championship.

With 13 local players already pre-selected and protected, the Scorpions will only need to select two players from the online draft, which will be held via Zoom today.

The Gleaner has learnt that the franchise is planning to add an all-rounder and a fast bowler to complete the minimum 15 contracted players.

With that, Guyanese batsman Assad Fudadin, who played four games for Jamaica last season in the Four-Day Championship, has been cut, as well as Grenadian wicketkeeper Denis Smith, who played six games during his debut season for the Scorpions.

Fudadin scored just 83 runs in eight innings this season at an average of 10.37 while Smith, who fared better with 227 runs in 11 innings, had 17 dismissals behind the stumps after taking over from Aldane Thomas.

In the 2018-2019 season, the Scorpions had Fudadin and Barbadian all-rounder Kenroy Williams as their two overseas picks.

This year, CWI’s board has decided that the requirement to contract at least two players from outside of the franchise territory will not be mandatory.

With the advent of COVID-19 and the negative impact it has had on the sporting landscape, in particular cricket, globally and regionally, all contracts will be awarded for only a six-month term at a 50 per cent reduced value.

After the latest developments, Scorpions chief selector Junior Bennett, who will make the two picks with head coach Andre Coley today, says the move by the board to go with only local players was a unanimous and obvious one.

“With the cut in fees, looking at someone with a ‘C’ contract now to come and live in a different country earning, let’s say $60,000 per month, you can’t pay rent and find transportation out of that, and so that doesn’t make sense to have an overseas player right now,” Bennett said.

Eighteen Jamaicans have been listed in the player pool, which has 109 players. Several Jamaicans who represented other franchises last season are now available to be selected. They are Odean Smith, who played for the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force; Ramaal Lewis, who played for the Guyana Jaguars; and leg spinner Damion Jacobs, who played three matches for the Leeward Islands Hurricanes. Windies Under-19 batsman Kirk McKenzie is also listed in the draft pool. The Scorpions will have the third picks in both rounds.

John Campbell (captain)

Jermaine Blackwood

Nkrumah Bonner

Paul Palmer Jr

Derval Green

Marquino Mindley

Akim Fraser

Dennis Bulli

Andre McCarthy

Nicholson Gordon

Patrick Harty Jr

Aldane Thomas

Jeavor Royal