“Our aim each year is to make CPL even bigger and better”

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

The Caribbean Premier League (CPL) has introduced a plethora of changes ahead of the 2016 edition of the tournament.

One of the biggest changes will see franchises be allowed to sign one marquee player as a free agent prior to the draft. In regards to the draft, the salary cap for each franchise has been increased from USD 600,000 to USD 780,000. Furthermore, each team will now be allowed to sign five international players instead of four. As a result of this, the number of players a team can have in their squad will increase from 16 to 17.

However, teams can now only retain three players instead of four ahead of the draft and it has been confirmed that the players each franchise retains and the marquee player they have signed will be revealed in January.

In the 2015 edition of the tournament, players from the ICC Americas region were given development contracts for the first time. However, in next year’s CPL, each franchise has to hand out a guaranteed contract to one player from the Americas region.

“Our aim each year is to make CPL even bigger and better so that we can attract the best T20 players in the world and make it as entertaining as possible for the fans,” CPL director Tom Moody said. “Over the past few months we’ve worked alongside the franchise owners to make sure that the 2016 player draft is open and competitive so that the buzz and excitement of CPL will start building from January right through to the tournament launch in the summer.

“From early January 2016 we’ll start to reveal the franchise marquee players and the retained players so that by the time the draft comes around in February fans will already have plenty to talk about.”