ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – De­fend­ing cham­pi­ons St Lu­cia Kings will be with­out the ser­vices of their in­spi­ra­tional cap­tain, Faf du Plessis for this year’s Caribbean Pre­mier League (CPL).

The 40-year-old South African, who led the Kings to their maid­en CPL ti­tle last year, has opt­ed to play for South­ern Brave in the Hun­dred – a pro­fes­sion­al crick­et league in the Unit­ed King­dom – which will run si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly with the CPL.

How­ev­er, dur­ing the 2025 CPL draft which took place on Wednes­day, the Kings added In­di­an Pre­mier League (IPL) cham­pi­on, Aus­tralian big hit­ter Tim David to its ros­ter.

Four-time CPL cham­pi­ons Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers have re­cruit­ed the Pak­istan pair of Mo­ham­mad Amir and Us­man Tariq, while the An­tigua and Bar­bu­da Fal­cons snapped up Imad Wasim as their first pick and Shak­ib Al Hasan as their sec­ond pick.

The Ama­zon War­riors re­tained 46-year-old Im­ran Tahir as their first pick, while Moeen Ali, who an­nounced his in­ter­na­tion­al re­tire­ment in Sep­tem­ber last year, was re-signed by the War­riors hav­ing opt­ed to skip the Hun­dred for the CPL.

Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers will once again have the ser­vices of Nicholas Pooran, who re­cent­ly an­nounced his re­tire­ment from in­ter­na­tion­al crick­et.

As ex­pect­ed, Kieron Pol­lard, Sunil Nar­ine and An­dre Rus­sell were all re­tained, while Dar­ren Bra­vo has re­turned to the fran­chise.

Each fran­chise al­so had to draft play­ers from the re­cent­ly con­clud­ed Break­out League in the last three rounds of the draft – 15, 16 and 17.

CPL 2025 full squads

St Kitts & Nevis Pa­tri­ots: Kyle May­ers, Ja­son Hold­er (trad­ed), Rilee Rossouw, Evin Lewis, Fazal­haq Fa­rooqi, Corbin Bosch, Waqar Salamkheil, An­dre Fletch­er, Al­ick Athanaze (trad­ed), Mo­ham­mad Nawaz, Do­minic Drakes, Mikyle Louis, Ash­mead Nedd, Je­re­mi­ah Louis, Jyd Goolie, Navin Bidaisee, Leniko Bouch­er.

An­tigua & Bar­bu­da Fal­cons: Imad Wasim, Shak­ib Al Hasan, Fabi­an Allen, Naveen-ul-Haq, Obed Mc­Coy, Justin Greaves, Bevon Ja­cobs, Jay­den Seales, AM Ghaz­an­far, Rah­keem Corn­wall (trad­ed), Odean Smith, Jew­el An­drew, Shamar Springer, Amir Jan­goo, Kari­ma Gore, Kevin Wick­ham, Joshua James.

Bar­ba­dos Roy­als: Rov­man Pow­ell, Bran­don King (trad­ed), Sher­fane Ruther­ford (trad­ed), Quin­ton de Kock, Mu­jeeb Ur Rah­man, Az­mat­ul­lah Omarzai, Jomel War­ri­can, Kadeem Al­leyne, Shaqkere Par­ris, Kofi James, Ny­eem Young, Ri­val­do Clarke, Zis­han Mo­tara, Jo­hann Layne, Ra­mon Sim­monds.

Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers: Kieron Pol­lard, An­dre Rus­sell, Sunil Nar­ine, Nicholas Pooran, Alex Hales, Akeal Ho­sein, Mo­ham­mad Amir, Col­in Munro, Us­man Tariq, Ali Khan, Dar­ren Bra­vo, Yan­nic Cari­ah, Kea­cy Car­ty, Ter­rance Hinds, McKen­ny Clarke, Joshua Da Sil­va, Nathan Ed­ward.

Guyana Ama­zon War­riors: Im­ran Tahir, Shim­ron Het­my­er, Ro­mario Shep­herd, Shai Hope, Glenn Phillips, Gu­dakesh Motie, Moeen Ali, Shamar Joseph, Keemo Paul, Dwaine Pre­to­rius, Shamarh Brooks, Ke­mol Sa­vory, Has­san Khan, Je­di­ah Blades, Kevlon An­der­son, Quentin Samp­son, Riyad Latif.

Saint Lu­cia Kings: Tim David, Alzarri Joseph, John­son Charles, Tim Seifert, Ros­ton Chase, Tabraiz Sham­si, David Wiese, De­lano Pot­gi­eter, Matthew Forde, Aaron Jones, Khary Pierre, Javelle Glen, Mic­ah McKen­zie, Shadrack Descarte, Jo­hann Je­re­mi­ah, Keon Gas­ton, Ac­k­eem Au­guste.

CMC rb/25