Jamaica’s Thomas goes to Hurricanes in regional player draft

ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC):

Only Leeward Islands Hurricanes and Windward Islands Volcanoes dipped into the pool and made selections from outside of their territory when Cricket West Indies (CWI) staged the Professional Cricket League Player Draft virtually last Thursday.

Hurricanes grabbed the headlines with their selection of discarded West Indies pacer Oshane Thomas from Jamaica Scorpions, in addition to Barbadian all-rounder Justin Greaves from the Volcanoes.

At the same time, Volcanoes kept Barbadian wicketkeeper-batsman Tevyn Walcott in their unit, while boosting their contracted squad with former West Indies Under-19 World Cup-winning all-rounder Shamar Springer from Barbados Pride, and Test opener Jeremy Solozano from Trinidad & Tobago Red Force.

The six territorial franchises – Pride, Guyana Harpy Eagles, Scorpions, Hurricanes, Red Force, and Volcanoes – largely stuck to the core of the players that represented them in the West Indies Championship and West Indies Super50 Cup over the past year.

According to a CWI news release, each franchise was required to name a list of 10 “protected” players before the draft, and they were then required to pick five players, one from each of the five rounds, during the draft to complete their 15-member contracted squad list for an interim three-month period.

“The interim contracts will run from July 1 to September 30, with new 12-month contracts to start from October 1 to September 30 next year, following the strategic decision to now align contracts with the CWI financial year,” the news release stated.

“Each franchise was required to contract two players under the age of 25 as of October 1 this year as part of the overall regional programme to ensure playing opportunities for younger and developing players.”

The news release added that the next edition of the Super50 Cup is scheduled to be played from October 21 to November 11 in Antigua and Trinidad, and the franchises will get the opportunity to revise their contracted squads ahead of October 1 once the West Indies international retainer contracts for the 2023-24 season have been confirmed.

“All international retained players and umpires have been offered three-month contract extensions to September 30 this year,” the release stated.

Harpy Eagles, this year’s West Indies Championship winners, have selected the uncapped trio of off-spinner Junior Sinclair, and Guyana Under-19 batsmen Rampertab Ramnath and Mavendra Dindyal among six newly contracted players.

Though Sinclair has not played for Harpy Eagles in either the Championship or the Super50 Cup, he has made eight Twenty20 appearances for the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the Caribbean Premier League, while fast bowler Shamar Joseph, opener Matthew Nandu, and wicketkeeper-batsman Kemol Savory played in the last season.s

Scorpions, the Super50 Cup champions, made sweeping changes to their list of contractees, retaining only six players from last season – Test pacer Marquino Mindley, West Indies A left-handed opener Kirk McKenzie, pacer Gordon Bryan, spinner Jeavor Royal, former Jamaica Under-19 captain Brad Barnes, and fellow batsman Carlos Brown.

The new retained list includes established pacer Derval Green, spin bowling all-rounder Abhijai Mansingh, pacer Ojay Shields, and batsman Tevin Gilzene – all members of the squad during the past season.

Off-spinner Peat Salmon earned a recall, and the uncapped quartet of leg-spin bowling all-rounder Javel Glenn, former West Indies Under-19 left-hander Daniel Beckford, left-arm pacer Shalome Parnell, and all-rounder Andre Bailey have nailed a first contract.