By Neto Baptiste
Former West Indies under-19 captain and senior national batsman, Zorol Barthley, has been appointed the Deputy Chairman of the of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Tournament Committee for the pending 2020 instalment of the tournament.
Barthley, who also played at the Leeward Islands under-19 level, is deputy to former PM of Jamaica, PJ Patterson.
“The tournament committee basically looks after the rules of the tournament and it’s about ensuring that there is credibility and integrity in the tournament. We put the framework in place for transfers of players, for the draft and any issues that come up in that respect, just anything that has to do with the integrity of the tournament,” he said.
It is, however, not the first time that Barthley will serve on the committee, stating that his relationship with the body began some seven years ago when he occupied a seat on the committee from the West Indies Cricket Board’s end.
“Under the arrangement signed by Cricket West Indies [CWI], the CPL ought to have a cricket tournament committee of three members appointed by CWI, three by the CPL, and the chairman of that committee is the most honourable PJ Patterson, the former prime minister of Jamaica. So from its inception since 2013, I’ve always been a member of that tournament committee with the exception of one year, in 2018, when I was doing some freelance work which provided some conflict, so I resigned from the committee,” he said. Barthley has also served as a vice president of the Leeward Islands Cricket Association and as chief cricket operations officer with the West Indies Cricket Board. He was also a player agent in the Indian Premier League (IPL) between 2008 and 2009 and as chairman of the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket stadium between 2008 and 2011.