Tom Moody hails growth of Caribbean Premier League

Australian twotime World Cup winner Tom Moody believes that this yearrsquos Hero Caribbean Premier League CPL will be the most competitive yet and that the inclusion of a myriad of worldclass players across all six teams will make it the biggest and best yetMoody who recently steered Sunrisers Hyderabad to their maiden IPL title as Head Coach is the CPLrsquos International Director of Cricket and played a key role in securing the signing of overseas players of the calibre of AB de Villiers Faf du Plessis Brendon McCullum and Shane Watson for the first timeTom Moody File PicThe 50yearold believes that their commitment to the biggest party in sport allied to a host of outstanding local West Indies and international stars is a ringing endorsement of the growing international stature of the CPL which will this year be played between June 29 and August 7The former Warwickshire Worcestershire and Western Australian allrounder who scored 21001 first class runs and took 361 firstclass wickets in a career spanning 16 years spoke to wwwcplt20com about winning the IPL the growth of CPLs standing internationally and outlined his hopes for the forthcoming seasonOn coaching IPL winners Sunrisers Hyderabad It was definitely career highlight to be involved in a successful IPL campaign The IPL as we all know is a big tournament and to end up winning what is a pretty hardfought battle and get the reward at the end of it is a real bonus for all involved in the campaignrdquoOn the impact of West Indies Treble winning success over the last six months ldquoI think it the Treble victories was just wonderful and itrsquos not just the Menrsquos team itrsquos right through from the Under19s winning their World Cup and the Women winning their World Cup and then then Men putting the cherry on the cake I think thatrsquos an enormous boost to West Indies cricket and itrsquos a great way to launch another CPL season The CPL is on the rise everyonersquos talking about it everyone wants to be involved in it and to have that success at all those levels is only going to have the islands buzzingrdquoOn the CPLrsquos recruitment drive in the close season ldquoI think itrsquos enormous boost I obviously spoke to all of these players AB de Villiers Faf du Plessis Martin Guptill Brendon McCullum Kumar Sangakkara and Shane Watson with regard to getting involved in the CPL in 2016 and it wasnrsquot a hard sell The best players in the world want to play in this tournament because they have heard a lot of positive things about the tournament theyrsquove heard how successful itrsquos been theyrsquove heard how competitive itrsquos been and the best players want to play in the best tournaments Itrsquos as simple as that To lure the likes of McCullum de Villiers Watson and whoever it might have been to this tournament and itrsquos littered with big international names was a reasonably easy task purely because of what the CPL has managed to build over the last three yearsrdquoOn developing the next generation of West Indies players ldquoFor me the CPL is one pathway where players right from the Under19rsquos level through to domestic players who might not get the light shone on them during the summer can launch their careers Wersquove seen it before in the IPL with young Indians and in Australia with young Australians in the Big Bash And it should really be no different in the Caribbean where the CPL can be a vehicle for young players to be really highlighted on the big stage because theyrsquore playing against some of the best players in the world If they can stack up against those players and perform consistently and really shine over the tournament itrsquos a real launching pad for them into their careerrdquoOn the emergence of Guyana Amazon Warriorsbound Adam Zampa in recent months ldquoIt doesnrsquot matter if yoursquore a veteran of 100 Test matches or a rising star the Caribbean Premier League is a tournament that people want to perform in Adam Zampa is a great example of someone who sees the Caribbean Premier League as an opportunity for him to continue to develop and increase his stock as a cricketer If he continues to have a good TriSeries prior to this tournament and he backs it up with a good CPL hersquos going to be looked upon more and more as a real contender for Australian cricket in all formats of the gamerdquoOn the move to Lauderhill in Florida and the entry of CPL into the USA ldquoI think itrsquos a very exciting opportunity for the CPL to introduce a formal vibrant and successful tournament to the American market We know itrsquos going to be very diverse in terms of the audience and thatrsquos the exciting thing Wersquoll be introducing the game to some new people and wersquore going to be bringing the game to people that have been starved of live cricket I can see a lot of people travelling from far and wide just to capture a few daysrsquo cricket and to me itrsquos a really exciting opportunity for the players of the Caribbean and the internationals who are involved to really showcase their skills and put on a show in that week were in FloridardquoOn the competitiveness of squads across the board in this yearrsquos CPL ldquoTherersquos no doubt that every side was very shrewd through the Draft process and recruited very well You canrsquot pick a winner In the past you could have hinted that maybe the Barbados Tridents and the Jamaica Tallawahs were destined to play Finals cricket But you look at the teams now and itrsquos very hard to pick a top two And thatrsquos very exciting for the tournament Therersquos nothing better than having all six teams towards the back end of the tournament vying for the FinalsrdquoOn the Australian influence at CPL 2016 Watson Hussey Lynn Zampa ldquoYou can guarantee that the Australian audience Down Under will be keeping an eager eye on some of their favourite players I know that the CPL has definitely got traction in Australia and people do follow the tournament closely Obviously likes of Watson and Hussey are favourites in all forms of the game Hussey is continuing to show how itrsquos done long after his international retirement and with Zampa everyonersquos excited with his meteoric rise theres no doubt its exciting when he gets the ball in his handrdquo