Tallawahs open season against Zouks

The Jamaica Tallawahs will bow into action in the 2020 Caribbean Premier League when they take on the Daren Sammy-led St Lucia Zouks at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy on Wednesday, August 19 at 10 a.m.The Rovman Powell-led Tallawahs will then take on the host Trinbago Knight Riders the next day in an evening encounter before squaring off with the Guyana Amazon Warriors on Saturday, August 22, in another evening matchup.

The Tallawahs will then shift the venue to the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain for three more games before returning to the BLCA for the final four fixtures before the semifinals on September 8.

The Jamaican-based members of the Tallawahs are expected to leave the island next week to meet up with the new manager and CEO Jeff Miller and the rest of the coaching staff in Trinidad for a quarantine period before the tournament gets under way.

Opening encounter

In the meantime, the opening encounter in this year's CPL will see the Trinbago Knight riders taking on the Guyana Amazon Warriors on Tuesday, August 18 at 10 a.m. at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy.

Speaking about the announcement of the tournament fixtures, Hero CPL's COO, Pete Russell, said: "We would like to express our gratitude to the government of Trinidad and Tobago for helping us to put on this tournament in such difficult circumstances. We are delighted that we can deliver a tournament that is ensuring the safety of the public and the players and that will be of such a high standard."

The tournament will take place behind closed doors in a bio-secure environment with a series of stringent protocols in place to protect those involved in the tournament and the wider population from the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Damien O'Donohoe, the Hero CPL's CEO, is excited about the upcoming season. "This year will be a different CPL, but the standard will be higher than ever. We have seen the appetite for live sport since it has returned after a prolonged absence, and the interest in CPL will be higher than ever with it being the first franchise T20 tournament to return," he said.