CPL to launch ‘The 6ixty’

Cricket West Indies and the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) have announced that the 10th season of the CPL will launch a new T10 tournament called ‘The 6ixty’. The inaugural season is scheduled to be held in St. Kitts from August 24 to 28, 2022, just before the CPL season kicks off. 

The tournament will have all six CPL teams and three of the women’s franchises participate. The CPL hopes to hold the event on a quarterly basis and host it not only in St. Kitts but in other Caribbean regions as well. 

The rules of the tournament set by CWI and the CPL are as follows:

• Each batting team will only have six wickets to bat through.
• Each batting team will have two PowerPlay overs. They could unlock a third PowerPlay over by hitting two sixes in the first 12 balls. This extra PowerPlay over could then be taken at any time between overs 3-9.
• There will be 30 balls bowled from one end before the action switches to the other end for the final 30 balls.
• The 30 balls will be delivered as five separate overs, with no bowler being able to bowl more than 2 overs for the innings.
• If the bowling team do not bowl their overs within the allotted time, a member from their side will be removed from the field of play for the final six balls.
• Fans will vote for the timing of a “Mystery Free Hit”, where a batter couldn’t be dismissed by the bowler.

Pete Russell, Hero CPL’s CEO, commented:

“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. It’s just about trying to generate excitement and interest. It’s like what’s going on with golf right now – you have to look at things through a different lens sometimes. This is about a totally new audience. We’re very much going after the younger generation. 

“CPL is owned privately: we have a sanctioning agreement with them [CWI] and they have a very small share. 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.

“It suits the Caribbean way of playing cricket. Those T10 tournaments have done well and are run by local cricket boards on a shoestring, really, but have been well supported by the players. There will be at least 12 players who aren’t in CPL playing in this event and we’ve been very clear that we don’t just want that to be the old guard. It’s very much going to be new players coming in so teams can have a look at them and if people get injured in CPL, they can hopefully pick from that pool.

“We want to make it portable: we want to run it over five days, similar to how Rugby Sevens is played. You have the ability to take it around the region, rather than us saying we need a player available for five weeks, which increasingly is going to become problematic. Our plan is to do four a year, that’s the starting point. Potentially, you’d like to have three in the Caribbean and one elsewhere. We’d like to play one internationally somewhere: if I could take the 6ixty to Vegas, that would be a dream ticket.“

Ricky Skerritt, President of Cricket West Indies, added:

“THE 6IXTY has come about because of a close collaboration between CPL and CWI which is the way forward. I am really excited about the innovation, excitement and entertainment that it is going to bring to the fans.“

The inaugural 6ixty season will be sponsored by news platform Skyexch, with West Indies legend Chris Gayle serving as an ambassador for the tournament.