The road to the 2026 Re­pub­lic Bank Caribbean Pre­mier League of­fi­cial­ly be­gan this week as the sev­en fran­chis­es fi­nalised their lo­cal play­er ros­ters dur­ing the an­nu­al CPL draft.

The tour­na­ment is set to run from Au­gust 7 to Sep­tem­ber 20, with over­seas play­er sign­ings ex­pect­ed to be an­nounced in the com­ing weeks.

While sev­er­al teams leaned heav­i­ly on con­ti­nu­ity, the draft de­liv­ered sig­nif­i­cant head­line moves, most no­tably the de­par­ture of star spin­ner Gu­dakesh Motie from his home fran­chise af­ter five years.

The Bar­ba­dos Tri­dents land­ed the biggest do­mes­tic steal of the draft, se­lect­ing Motie away from the Guyana Ama­zon War­riors.

Bar­ba­dos al­so re­unit­ed with hard-hit­ting Guyanese bats­man Sher­fane Ruther­ford, who was part of the Tri­dents’ squad in 2025.

Us­ing their Right to Match Op­tions (RMOs), Bar­ba­dos se­cured the re­turns of Bran­don King, Kadeem Al­leyne, Ri­val­do Clarke, Jo­hann Layne, and Kofi James. Zis­han Mo­tara will al­so don the Tri­dents’ colours again in 2026.

The de­fend­ing cham­pi­on Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers pri­ori­tised ex­pe­ri­ence, ex­er­cis­ing RMOs to lock in a cham­pi­onship spin, which in­cludes Sunil Nar­ine, Nicholas Pooran, Kieron Pol­lard, Akeal Ho­sein, and Ter­rance Hinds.

How­ev­er, there are fresh faces in the lock­er room. Bar­ba­di­ans Justin Greaves and Do­minic Drakes join the Trinidad-based fran­chise for the first time.

Lo­cal fans will cel­e­brate Jyd Goolie rep­re­sent­ing his home team af­ter a 2025 stint with the St Kitts & Nevis Pa­tri­ots, while new­com­ers Dex­ter Sween and Ab­dul Ra­heem-Top­pin round out the squad.

The St Kitts & Nevis Pa­tri­ots have as­sem­bled a record-break­ing open­ing pair. They draft­ed John­son Charles, the CPL’s all-time lead­ing run-scor­er, and used an RMO to re­tain An­dre Fletch­er, who sits sec­ond on the tour­na­ment’s ca­reer runs list.

The Pa­tri­ots al­so matched Kyle May­ers, Al­ick Athanaze, and Mikyle Louis. In a no­table re­union, for­mer cham­pi­on Ja­son Hold­er is back in the Pa­tri­ots’ dress­ing room, joined by first-time Pa­tri­ots Kevin Wick­ham and Obed Mc­Coy.

The Guyana Ama­zon War­riors felt the loss of Gu­dakesh Motie to Bar­ba­dos but moved quick­ly to re­place him with left-arm spin­ner Khary Pierre, for­mer­ly of the Kings.

The War­riors re­tained their core through RMOs, in­clud­ing Shim­ron Het­my­er, Ro­mario Shep­herd, Shai Hope, and Shamar Joseph.

Be­yond Pierre, the ros­ter is a show­case of home­grown tal­ent. Ronal­do Al­imo­hamed, Veer­sam­my Per­maul, Maven­dra Dindyal, and Jonathan van Lange all join, mean­ing 10 of the War­riors’ 12 lo­cal se­lec­tions hail from Guyana.

The Ja­maica Kings­men draft­ed two of the most ex­plo­sive T20 play­ers in the re­gion in Rov­man Pow­ell and An­dre Rus­sell. They will be sup­port­ed by fel­low Ja­maicans Odean Smith, Vi­tel Lawes, Jeav­or Roy­al, and Kirk McKen­zie.

The Kings­men al­so added ex­pe­ri­enced CPL hands Keemo Paul, Kea­cy Car­ty, and Shaqkere Par­ris.

The An­tigua & Bar­bu­da Fal­cons pulled off a ma­jor coup, bring­ing lo­cal hero Alzarri Joseph back af­ter a five-sea­son run with the Saint Lu­cia Kings.

They al­so signed pow­er­ful open­er Evin Lewis, end­ing his decade-plus as­so­ci­a­tion with the Pa­tri­ots. The Fal­cons used RMOs to re­tain Fabi­an Allen, Jay­den Seales, and Amir Jan­goo, while Shamar Springer, Rah­keem Corn­wall, and Kari­ma Gore re­turn from their 2025 squad.

An­der­son Ma­hase and An­der­son Phillip are the new names on the Fal­cons’ ros­ter.

The Saint Lu­cia Kings fo­cused on sta­bil­i­ty and youth, us­ing RMOs to keep Ros­ton Chase, Matthew Forde, and Keon Gas­ton.

The head­line ad­di­tion is ex­cit­ing An­tiguan bat­ter, Jew­el An­drew. The Kings al­so wel­come back Saint Lu­cian McKen­ny Clarke and have se­lect­ed Trinida­di­an top-or­der bat­ter Kamil Pooran, along with Damion Joachim, Joshua Bish­op, and Dar­ron Nedd.

CMC