St Lucia Zouks to replace St Lucia Stars in upcoming CPL

St Lucia Zouks will replace St Lucia Stars in the upcoming Caribbean Premier League following the recent ousting of St Lucia Stars from the tournament.

The Zouks was the original name of the franchise when it was founded in 2013. The Stars had replaced the Zouks in 2016, but last week the CPL had terminated the participation agreement between Royal Sports Club LLC (entity that operates the Saint Lucia franchise).

The organisers of CPL had not given a reason behind the ousting of St Lucia Stars from the tournament.

Jay Pandya, the chief executive and owner of Royal Sports club LLC, had said on Saturday that he disagrees with the statement of the CPL, adding the franchise has agreed to work with the organisers to address issues.

"We completely disagree with the CPL press release and will be working to address any issues the CPL may have in an appropriate manner and forum," Pandya had said.

St Lucia Stars have never won the CPL, and they displayed their best result in 2016 finishing third in the tournament.

In 2018, they finished fifth among the six teams, with seven points from ten matches.They had top Caribbean players in the team in 2018 -- Darren Sammy, Kieron Pollard and Rahkeem Cornwall.

David Warner, Niroshan Dickwella and Mitchell McClenaghan were among the main overseas players in the team last year while this year they had drafted Lasith Malinga and Fawad Alam.

The 2019 CPL season is slated to start from September 4 and the first match will be played between Trinbago Knight Riders and St Kitts and Nevis Patriots.

St Lucia Zouks will take on Guyana Amazon Warriors on September 5.