St. Lucia Zouks retain seven players ahead of CPL 2021 draft
St. Lucia Zouks experienced a decent ride in the 2020 edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) as they finished at the third position on the points table. In the league stage, the franchise managed to secure victory in six of the ten matches played and were placed behind just Trinbago Knight Riders and Guyana Amazon Warriors.
After reaching the second stage of the tournament, St. Lucia Zouks defeated Amazon Warriors in the semi-finals by ten wickets. However, their campaign came to an end as they ended up as the runners-up after being outplayed by Trinbago Knight Riders by eight wickets in the final of the championship.
BREAKING NEWS: Retained Zouks for @CPL 2021 #ZouksSaChaud #CPL21 #CricketPlayedLouder pic.twitter.com/qleFqEkvOs
— St Lucia Zouks (@Zouksonfire) May 18, 2021
After a good run in the previous season, St. Lucia Zouks were expected to enter the 2021 edition of CPL too with almost a similar squad. However, in a surprising turn of events, the management decided to release most of their players and are looking forward to going into the next edition with a relatively new squad.
Daren Sammy will not feature in CPL 2021
St. Lucia Zouks have released as many as ten players while retaining only seven cricketers. One of the most surprising releases has been of Afghanistan’s spin all-rounder Mohammad Nabi. The exclusion of Nabi has raised many eyebrows as Nabi delivered many match-winning performances for the Zouks in the previous season. The spinner claimed a stunning 12 wickets in 12 matches while scoring 182 runs at a decent strike rate.
The other Afghan star who will be up for grabs in the upcoming CPL draft is Najibullah Zadran. Zadran was the second-highest run-scorer for Zouks with 224 runs in 11 innings but the management decided against retaining him.
In addition to that, Zouks’ skipper Daren Sammy will also not feature in the 2021 edition of the Caribbean Premier League. The all-rounder has decided to hang his boots in West Indies T20 League. Thus, the St. Lucia Zouks management has roped in Sammy as their Cricket Consultant and Brand Ambassador.
Full list of players retained and released by the St. Lucia Zouks ahead of CPL 2021
Players Retained: Andre Fletcher, Roston Chase, Kesrick Williams, Obed McCoy, Rahkeem Cornwall, Mark Deyal, and Javelle Glen.
Players Released: Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Scott Kuggeleijn, Leniko Boucher, Kavem Hodge, Kimani Melius, Daren Sammy, Chemar Holder, Saad Bin Zafar, Zahir Khan.
