Caption: A floodlight off at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, Guyana, on Tuesday. Photo: CPL via Getty Images
By Prior Beharry
GUYANA and Barbados will host the finals of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) in 2025 and 2026, respectively.
A release on Friday stated, “CPL has agreed to a one-year deal for the finals to be held in Guyana in 2025. For 2026, the finals will be held at the iconic Kensington Oval in Barbados for the very first time.”
President of Guyana, Mohammed Irfan Ali, said: “I want to take this opportunity to wish the Guyana Amazon Warriors all success on behalf of all Guyanese as we try to make it two in a row. To all the other teams, we wish you well as we play together in unity. I am also very delighted to announce that Guyana will be hosting the CPL 2025 finals.”
Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, said: “I am so happy to say that the CPL finals 2026 will be in Bridgetown at Kensington Oval. As you prepare for the long march to Bridgetown, let’s hope my own team, the Barbados Royals, can make it to the finals this year. If we don’t, we will catch you next year, and for sure we are going to catch you in Bridgetown in 2026.”
CPL CEO Pete Russell said: “Guyana and Barbados have been amazing partners for the CPL over the last 12 years, and it is really exciting to be able to announce that they will be hosts for the finals in 2025 and 2026, respectively. We would like to thank the governments of both Guyana and Barbados who have agreed to play host to the conclusion of the CPL.”
The announcement comes amid controversy following the eliminator on Tuesday between the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) and the Barbados Royals, as three floodlights on the eastern end of the ground went off with five more balls to go in the TKR innings.
When the lights came back on more than two hours later, the Royals were given a revised target of 60 runs from five overs under the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern (DLS) method.
The Royals won, with many TKR fans claiming sabotage, saying that with their team on 168 for three and Nicholas Pooran unbeaten on 91, in an uninterrupted game, the Royals would have been hard-pressed to win.
The Royals were knocked out by hosts Guyana Amazon Warriors, the arch-enemy of TKR, on Friday. The Warriors will now play St. Lucia Kings in Sunday’s final at the National Stadium in Providence, Guyana.
This was the third year that Guyana had hosted the eliminators and finals.
The controversy with the TKR-Royals game and a fight during one of the matches at Providence has led to calls for Trinidad to host eliminator and final matches. In the 12 years of the CPL, Trinidad has hosted six finals.
Political leader of the National Alliance for Transformation and former police commissioner, Gary Griffith, wrote to Russell asking for the finals to be held in Trinidad.
He said, “The recent incidents in Guyana, where the 2024 CPL playoffs and finals are being held, whether due to poor management or organisation, are indeed unfortunate. On this note, we seek your consideration for the 2025 to 2027 CPL playoffs and finals to be returned to T&T.”
On Friday in Parliament, during her response to the Budget, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said if her party wins the next elections, her government will make moves to have the next CPL finals hosted in Trinidad.
She said, “Madam Speaker, the circumstances in which our TKR departed the ongoing Caribbean Premier League (CPL) tournament left a sour taste for legions of sports lovers. Outage led to outrage!”
She added, “We hosted the finals during our years in office. Today I would like to place on record the desire of my incoming government to approach the Caribbean Premier League to once again host the eliminator matches and finals of the CPL in the coming years.”
Persad-Bissessar said, “This will bring enormous economic opportunity and foreign exchange to our shores, but will also signal our deepest commitment to the sport and the future of West Indian cricket.”
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