Explosive Jamaican batsman Chris Gayle is moving from the Jamaica Tallawahs to the St. Kitts Patriots for the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) next season.
The transfer means that the talismanic left-handed opener has cut ties with his native Jamaica Tallawahs for the Twenty20 tournament, which he has twice led to the title, including 2016.
The Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Twenty20 tournament will be held from August to September next year (2017) because of the hectic cricket season.
Chief Operations Officer of the Hero CPL Pete Russell said that India is coming to the Caribbean for an One-Day International series and did not want to clash with the games so it was decided that August was the best month.
Russell explained that the economic impact of the CPL was US$90 million in 2016, a huge increase from the 2015 season which made US76.2 million in the Caribbean.
He said the television audience is an indication of the popularity of the tournament, which had an audience of 134 million, of which 82 million comes from India.
The CPL will have top international players this year.
