Motara’s Breakout: Young spinner secured for Barbados Pelicans T20

Teenaged leg-spinner Zishan Motara has benefitted from the special playing condition in the newly created West Indies Breakout League and was named one of the seven protected players for the Barbados Pelicans for the Twenty20 tournament to be played from next month in Trinidad.

Cricket West Indies (CWI) announced on Tuesday that the six franchise teams taking part in the highly anticipated tournament, featuring 17 matches from April 25 to May 10 at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad, have officially confirmed their protected players ahead of the Player Draft.

Each team is allowed seven protected players under tournament regulations – with a maximum of three between the age of 27 and 29 – and the remaining seven players in the squad will be selected during the Draft and must all be 26 years old or younger.

Motara, a highly regarded leg-spinner and an important weapon for the champion Barbados Under-19 side over the past two years, earned a place in the Pelicans line-up, and he is expected to play a pivotal role for the side in the tournament.

CWI stipulated that one of the protected seven players in each of the franchise sides must be a leg spinner because of their importance in this form of the sport, and Motara fit the bill perfectly for the Pelicans.

Although he has not played an official T20 match, the 18-year-old has already appeared in eight first-class and six List A matches for the CWI Academy in the past 12 months and could form a lethal combination with the highly touted left-arm spin bowling all-rounder Joshua Bishop, one of the other seven protected players.

Former West Indies Under-19 batting pair of Kevin Wickham and Shaqkere Parris, as well as all-rounder Nyeem Young, towering all-rounder Kadeem Alleyne and pugnacious wicketkeeper-batsman Leniko Boucher are the other five Pelican protected players.

All the Pelicans protected players, except Motara, have appeared in the Caribbean Premier League, which has spawned this tournament, a bid to develop the next generation of West Indies internationals in the format.

Barbadian all-rounder Shamar Springer, who played a couple of Twenty20 Internationals for West Indies last October in Sri Lanka, has also made the protected list, but he will be playing for the Windward Islands Infernos.

West Indies Test and One-day International batsmen Alick Athanaze and Keacy Carty headline the list of protected players from the rest of franchises. They will play for the Windward Islands Infernos and Leeward Islands Thunder respectively.

Test opener Mikyle Louis and teenaged ODI wicketkeeper-batsman Jewel Andrew will also be a part of the Thunder line-up, discarded Test batsman Kirk McKenzie has been named on the Jamaica Titans list, and Test spinner Kevin Sinclair made the protected list for the Guyana Rainforest Rangers.

Several other players with West Indies emerging or Under-19 or senior regional experience have also made it onto the protected lists of the six franchises.

Players such as left-handed wicketkeeper-batsman Amir Jangoo (Trinidad & Tobago Legions), Test selectee Jeremiah Louis (Thunder), and a trio of former Windies Under-19 captains, Teddy Bishop and Ackeem Auguste (Infernos) and Ramaal Lewis (Titans).

A CWI news release stated that to maintain the focus of the League on emerging talent, all players must also have limited professional experience, defined as having played fewer than 40 official T20 matches and fewer than 10 T20 Internationals. (BT)

Protected players for each franchise:

Barbados Pelicans: Leniko Boucher, Kadeem Alleyne, Joshua Bishop, Nyeem Young, Shaqkere Parris,

Kevin Wickham, Zishan Motara.

Guyana Rainforest Rangers:

Nial Smith, Kemol Savory,

Ronaldo Alimohamed, Kevin Sinclair, Ashmead Nedd, Kevlon Anderson, Riyad Latif.

Jamaica Titans: Deethmar Anderson, Leroy Lugg, Ramaal Lewis,

Jeavor Royal, Kirk McKenzie,

Jordan Johnson, Tamarie Redwood.

Leeward Islands Thunder:

Jeremiah Louis, Keacy Carty,

Kofi James, Karima Gore,

Mikyle Louis, Jewel Andrew,

Micah McKenzie.

Trinidad & Tobago Legions:

Kamil Pooran, Amir Jangoo,

Jyd Goolie, Crystian Thurton,

Navin Bidassie, Mikkel Govia,

Joshua James.

Windward Islands Infernos:

Darel Cyrus, Shadrack Descarte, Shamar Springer, Alick Athanaze, Dillon Douglas, Teddy Bishop, Ackeem Auguste.