The Caribbean Twenty20 was an annual tournament Twenty20 cricket tournament in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

that was held four times from 2010 to 2013. The top performing domestic team qualified for the

Champions League Twenty20 The Champions League Twenty20, also referred to as the CLT20, was an annual international Twenty20 Cricket competition played between qualifying domestic teams from some major cricketing nations. The competition was launched in 2008 with the f ...

tournament. It was replaced by the

Caribbean Premier League The Caribbean Premier League (abbreviated to CPL or CPLT20) is an annual Twenty20 cricket tournament held in the Caribbean. It was founded by Cricket West Indies in 2013 to replace the Caribbean Twenty20 as the premier Twenty20 competition in ...

, whose first season began in July 2013.

History

The previous domestic

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single inn ...

tournament held by the

West Indies Cricket Board Cricket West Indies (CWI) is the governing body for cricket in the West Indies (a sporting confederation of over a dozen mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries and dependencies that once formed the British West Indies). It was originally ...

was the Stanford 20/20, which ended in 2008 after its sponsor

Allen Stanford Robert Allen Stanford (born March 24, 1950) is an American financial fraudster, former financier, and sponsor of professional sports. He is serving a 110-year federal prison sentence, having been convicted in 2012 of fraud, on charges that his i ...

was charged with fraud and arrested in June 2009. The creation of the Caribbean Twenty20 tournament coincides with the

2010 Champions League Twenty20 The 2010 Champions League Twenty20 was the second edition of the Champions League Twenty20, an international Twenty20 cricket tournament. The tournament, which was held from 10 to 26 September 2010 in South Africa, featured 10 domestic Twenty20 ...

tournament, which started less than two months after. The top domestic team from the tournament qualified for the Champions League as the sole representative of the West Indies. They will be the tenth and last team to qualify, as all other teams qualified before May 2010. Cricket in the West Indies was at a time of decline, indicated by the criticism received when they hosted the

2007 Cricket World Cup The 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup was the ninth Cricket World Cup, a One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament that took place in the West Indies from 13 March to 28 April 2007. There were a total of 51 matches played, three fewer than at the ...

and the failure of the Stanford 20/20. With the slogan "Bring It Back", the Caribbean Twenty20 was an attempt to revitalize interest in the sport with a focus on the Twenty20 format, which was popular amongst audiences in the 18–34 age-group. This follows the success of the

Trinidad and Tobago national cricket team The Trinidad and Tobago cricket team, or officially the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force, is the representative cricket team of the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The Red Force takes part in inter-regional cricket competitions in the Caribbean, ...

at the

2009 Champions League Twenty20 The 2009 Champions League Twenty20 was the first edition of the Champions League Twenty20, an international club cricket tournament. It was held in India between 8 October and 23 October 2009 and featured 12 domestic teams from Australia, England, ...

, where they were runners-up, and the West Indies' successful hosting of the

2010 ICC World Twenty20 The 2010 ICC World Twenty20 was the third ICC World Twenty20 competition, an international Twenty20 cricket tournament that was held in the West Indies between 30 April and 16 May 2010. It was won by England, who defeated Australia in the fina ...

. After the inaugural tournament, the tournament was moved to January 2011. Originally it was intended to run alongside a second Twenty20 competition in January called the Calypso Cup, which would have featured the four semi-finalists from the 2010 Caribbean Twenty20 as well as the two finalists from England's Friends Provident t20 competition and two other overseas teams (including possibly a third team from England). These plans were later cancelled. It was later announced that the two English county teams

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

and

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

were to participate in the Caribbean Twenty20.

Replacement

In September 2012, outgoing chief executive of the WICB, Ernest Hilaire, revealed that the board was "in the advanced stages of discussions to have a commercial Twenty20 league in the region" with an unnamed investor and that he hopes to conclude a deal before his term ends on 30 September. He noted that the board will meet on 14 September to make decisions on the structure and organization of the Caribbean Twenty20 in January; to discuss the governance structure of the board and also discuss the planned league and to finalize its structure. The

Federation of International Cricketers' Associations The Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) is an organisation that co-ordinates the activities of all the national players’ associations that represent professional cricketers. Founded in 1998, FICA serves as the voice o ...

(FICA) and the

West Indies Players Association The West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) is the representative body for professional cricketers from the Caribbean nations that constitute the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). As the exclusive representative and bargaining agent of players sel ...

(WIPA) would also be brought in to discuss issues pertaining to players in relation to the planned T20 league. On 13 December 2012, the WICB announced that they had finalized an agreement with Ajmal Khan founder of Verus International, a Barbados-based merchant bank, for the funding of the new franchise-based Twenty20 league which will be launched in 2013. The new

is likely to comprise six Caribbean city-based franchises as opposed to the current territorial set-up and the majority of the players are to come from the West Indies. As part of the agreement, the WICB will receive additional funding from Verus International for additional retainer contracts for players in addition to the 20 annual retainer contracts the board currently funds.

Format

While the number of teams varied between editions, the format remained the same with a group stage and a knockout stage. If a match ends in a tie, a Super Over will be played to determine the winner. The group stage has the teams divided into two equal groups, with each playing a single round-robin tournament. The top two teams of each group advances to the advance to the knockout stage. The knockout stage consists of two semi-finals, a third-place playoff and the grand final. The semi-finals has the top team of one group facing the second from the other. The winners of the semi-finals play the grand final to determine the winner of the competition, while the losers of the semi-finals play the third-place playoff.

Prize money

The total prize money for the competition, in 2011, is

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

125,000, with the winning team receiving

62,500. The most outstanding player in each of the 16 matches will receive $500 and a plaque.

Teams

Domestic teams

Invited overseas team

Tournament results

References

{{Champions League Twenty20 West Indian cricket in the 20th century Recurring sporting events established in 2010 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2012 Defunct cricket leagues Sports leagues established in 2010 Sports leagues established in 2012 Twenty20 cricket leagues