Jamaica Kingsmen, the new Caribbean Premier League (CPL) franchise, have been handed the chance to recruit top local players such as Andre Russell and Rovman Powell unchallenged in May's draft.
The CPL announced on Thursday that the 2026 season, which will feature the Kingsmen as the seventh franchise, will mark the start of a new three-year contract cycle and that new player acquisition and draft rules have been designed to improve the league's "competitive balance" and to support "emerging talent".
The Kingsmen are owned by Fawad Sarwar, a Pakistani businessman based in the United States, whose PSL franchise Hyderabad Kingsmen have reached the knockout stages in their debut season. They will become the second Jamaican team to feature in the CPL after the Jamaica Tallawahs, who have been defunct since 2023.
They will have the chance to make the first three picks in the draft unchallenged, though their selections will be restricted to Jamaican players. They will only be allowed to select a maximum of one player from any franchise's 2025 squad; they will have to pick between Powell and Brandon King, for example, as both played for Barbados Royals last year.
Each franchise will then make picks in a snake system based on last season's standings and will be able to exercise a right-to-match option on four players from their most recent squad, or five if they lose a Jamaican player in the Kingsmen's initial picks.
Franchises have only been permitted one retention before the draft, who must be a "breakout" player from last season. The draft is solely for West Indies players, with franchises allowed to sign five overseas players through direct negotiations, of whom a maximum of four can feature in their playing XI for any given match.
Each squad will ultimately feature 17 players: nine senior West Indies players, five overseas players, and three "breakout" players (selected from the breakout league played ahead of the CPL), of whom at least one must feature in each match.
Michael Hall, the CPL's tournament operations director, said: "We have worked closely with the seven CPL franchises, Cricket West Indies, and other key stakeholders to develop a framework that allows us to successfully introduce a seventh team while maintaining competitiveness and fairness across the league."
The CPL's 2026 season will start on August 7 in St Vincent and will run until the final at Kensington Oval in Barbados on September 20.
