St Lucia Zouks had a decent journey in the last edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) finishing as the runners up of the competition. 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.
In the knockout stage, St. Lucia Zouks defeated Amazon Warriors in the semi-finals by ten wickets. However, their campaign came to an end losing to Trinbago Knight Riders in the title clash by eight wickets to finish as the runners up. They will hope to continue their good run in the upcoming season of CPL.
However, in a surprising move, Zouks management has decided to release most of their players and are looking forward to going into the next edition with a relatively new squad. 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.
On top of that, St Lucia 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.