Jamaica Tallawahs captain Rovman Powell admits losing both Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan is a big blow to his team.
Powell is still looking forward to CPL 2020 and says the Tallawahs squad must be professional despite the absence of that key pair.
Jamaica, who have won the tournament twice before, begin this year’s campaign against the St Lucia Zouks on August 19.
Gayle was released by the Tallawahs after last year’s competition and later publicly blamed that decision on coach Sarwan. The superstar batsman was due to link up with St Lucia but then announced he was missing this year’s event due to personal reasons.
Meanwhile, former West Indies cricketer Sarwan left the franchise last week and won’t be taking up his coaching role this year.
“To lose Chris first is a big loss, but even to lose Sarwan also is a big loss, But we got to be professional about it,” Powell told Newsday.
“We have to put our best foot forward nevertheless and just come out and play good cricket.”
“This is a very important year with regards to Tallawahs. It is no secret that we did not perform well last year, so this year we are definitely looking to change that. But yeah, those guys are a big loss.”
Powell happy with bowling attack
On a positive note, Powell said he is pleased to be leading players like Andre Russell and believes the Tallawahs have boosted their bowling attack for 2020.
They have added spinners Sandeep Lamichhane and Veerasammy Permaul. They will join pace bowlers Fidel Edwards, Preston McSween and Carlos Brathwaite.
West Indies pace men Oshane Thomas and Russell have been retained.
He added: “It is a pretty good bowling attack. It is no secret, as I said before, we struggled last year and this year we try to fix the bowling aspect of things so that we can better that.”
Tallawahs ended last year’s tournament last among the six teams, with only two wins in ten matches.
