Barbados delivers a CPL hit

Barbados has earned high marks for its hosting of the final leg of the 2026 Caribbean Premier League, with fans, officials and vendors praising the atmosphere and overall staging of the tournament at Kensington Oval.

The CPL season concluded before a near-capacity crowd on Sunday, as Antigua and Barbuda Falcons defeated Jamaica Kingsmen by eight-wickets to claim the title.

Speaking to Barbados TODAY during the final, Media Support Officer for the Barbados Tridents and CPL 2026, Andrew Sealy, hailed the staging of the final round of matches as a major success, pointing to strong crowd support and the quality of cricket throughout the week.

“We’ve had very good crowds. Unfortunately Barbados Tridents didn’t go beyond the playoffs but even without that, we have had very good crowds, and I think the cricket has been very enterprising and people have enjoyed it immensely,” Sealy stated.

At the start of the tournament, the Barbados Royals franchise was rebranded to Barbados Tridents and Sealy believes the move was well embraced by the public.

“The whole idea of the Barbados Tridents instead of Barbados Royals has gone very, very well. When you look all over Barbados you’ll see Barbados Trident shirts. They’ve gone as far as New York and Toronto I understand, so yes, the whole concept of the rebranding has worked extremely well.”

The final was virtually sold out and played in a tremendous atmosphere, with the condition of the pitch and outfield also coming in for praise from Sealy.

“Well we’ve had 97 runs in 10 overs at the start [of this innings], so certainly, yes the pitch is playing well. I think we have experienced, especially in the last couple of games, an outstanding amount of runs.”

Sealy continued, “The last game we got over 400 runs so think about it, when you watch a T20 game, that’s what you want to see. You don’t want to see somebody bowled out for like 90 something as we saw during an earlier game. We want to see at least 200.”

Vendors were happy with the crowd on hand for the final, with one stating that she wished Barbados would bid to host the final in 2027.

Another vendor, while pleased with his sales, believed that the playing dates of the men’s and women’s games should have been split, in an effort to maximise sales opportunities.

Visiting fans also gave the venue high marks including a trio of Guyana Amazon Warriors fans, who travelled from Toronto.

“We love it here. Obviously we would have wanted Guyana to win the title, but Kensington is one of my favourite venues and I love Barbados in general,” one revealed.

Another non-national fan, who is a student at the Cave Hill Campus of the UWI, also gave the final high marks but was of the opinion that well-documented issues with parking at the venue need to be addressed. 

He also questioned the lack of park-and-ride provisions during the final.

(KH)