St Lucia Kings Cricket Team Guide
The St Lucia Kings are one of the franchise members in the Caribbean Premier League, with the side hailing from the island nation of St Lucia. The side has gone through a number of rebrands over the years and has contributed to the growth of cricket in the tropical country.
St Lucia Kings Cricket Team Background
Founded back in 2013 alongside the other inaugural CPL members, the St Lucia Kings were actually known as two names formerly. The team were known as the St Lucia Zouks and St Lucia Stars before being renamed to the name we know them as today after being purchased by the same owners of the Punjab Kings in the IPL. This is evident when comparing the badges between the two sides. The team plays in blue, yellow, black and white, all the colours of the Saint Lucia flag.
Where Do St Lucia Kings Play?
Having a capacity of 15,000, the Darren Sammy Cricket Ground, formerly known as the Beausejour Cricket Ground, is the home ground of the St Lucia Kings Since being completed back in 2002, the ground has actually hosted a number of international matches for the West Indies cricket team too.
St Lucia Kings Players
With the St Lucia Kings being located in the Caribbean, the side has had a plethora of Windies players also play for them, with some of the most notable names including Johnson Charles, Roston Chase, Kesrick Williams and Andre Fletcher, the latter being the first player to surpass 2000 runs for his respective Caribbean Premier League side.
The St Lucia Kings has had a lot of overseas talent over the seasons, with England cricket team batter Kevin Pietersen, South Africa national cricket team player Faf du Plessis, Australian Shane Watson and Namibian star David Wiese all playing in the CPL for the St Lucians.
Memorable Games For The St Lucia Kings Cricket Team
Narrowly qualifying for the playoff stage of the 2021 CPL after finishing 4th in the league standings, they went on to play the Trinbago Knight Riders in the semi final knockout round who had finished in first place. Batting first after winning the toss, St Lucia put up an impressive stint at the crease, managing to score 205 runs, Mark Deyal getting 78 of these. They only took 4 wickets in this time, with this being beaten by David Wiese alone when it came around to the Kings bowling. He managed to take 5 wickets, limiting the Trinidad and Tobago based side to 184 runs, producing one of the biggest upsets in the tournament.
After defying the odds, they would go on to face the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in the final which would go on to be a nail biting matchup. In this, Rahkeem Cornwall would score 43 runs as the side finished on 159/7. However, in the final balls of the match, the St Kitts side barely managed to win by 1 run to secure the closest CPL final at the time. Although this was a defeat for the St Lucia Kings, it was still their highest finish in the competition and their first final appearance.
Rivals Of The St Lucia Kings Cricket Team
With there only being 6 teams within the Caribbean Premier League, all of the sides have rivalries between one another that continue to develop each season. Some of these other sides include the Barbados Royals and the Jamaica Tallawahs.
