The 10th season of the Caribbean Premier League will launch with a T10 tournament named 'The 6ixty' which organisers hope will become a quarterly event that can be staged around the region and beyond.
The inaugural season will take place from August 24 to 28 in St Kitts, immediately before the CPL season, and will feature matches between all six men's franchises and the three women's teams, with squads expected to be at 85% strength.
The format is predominantly a T10 competition but features several notable differences:
• Each batting team has six wickets, rather than ten
• Batting teams can 'unlock' a floating third powerplay over by hitting two sixes in the initial two-over powerplay
• Teams will bowl five consecutive overs from each end, rather than switching ends after each over
• If teams fail to bowl their 10 overs within 45 minutes, a fielder will be removed for the final six balls
• Fans will be able to vote for a 'mystery free hit' via an app or website
The new playing conditions will "add a layer of strategic intrigue and make sure that the bowlers won't just be cannon fodder," CPL CEO Pete Russell told ESPNcricinfo. "You're going to get some people saying 'this isn't cricket' but my view is that cricket is absolutely the most important element of it.
The tournament will launch in partnership with Cricket West Indies, who have become the first full-member board to create a T10 competition. "CPL is owned privately: we have a sanctioning agreement with them [CWI] and they have a very small share," Russell explained. "This league is different in as much as they have the majority share and CPL is there to run the event and manage it for them."
