The Hero Caribbean Premier League fixtures for the 2020 season have been announced as the best cricketing talent, from across the Caribbean and from around the world, are set to be part of the Twenty20 tournament which will run from 18 August to 10 September.

The decision came on a day when coronavirus cases in Latin America and the Caribbean surged, briefly overtaking the total in North America.

As the worldwide case count passed 16 million, Latin America and the Caribbean recorded the highest number of infections, taking its total caseload to more than 4.34 million.

It was the first time the total number of infections in the region had surpassed that of North America, where the United States remains the hardest-hit country in terms of both caseload and death toll.

The 33-match season will be played in Trinidad & Tobago, with all matches taking place across two stadiums in that country. The Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba will host 23 games, including the semifinals and final, and the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain will have 10 matches.

The first match will see last year’s runners-up, Guyana Amazon Warriors, take on Trinbago Knight Riders, while the second game will be last year’s champions, Barbados Tridents taking on the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots. Fans will have to wait until game 22 for a repeat of last year’s final with the Tridents taking on the Amazon Warriors.

The tournament will take place behind closed doors in a bio-secure environment with a series of stringent protocols in place to protect those involved in the tournament and the wider population from the spread the COVID-19 virus.

Damien O’Donohoe, the Hero CPL’s CEO, is excited about the upcoming season. “This year will be a different CPL, but the standard will be higher than ever. We have seen the appetite for live sport since it has returned after a prolonged absence, and the interest in CPL will be higher than ever with it being the first franchise T20 tournament to return.”

Speaking about the announcement of the tournament fixtures Hero CPL’s COO, Pete Russell, said: “We would like to express our gratitude to the government of Trinidad & Tobago for helping us to put on this tournament in such difficult circumstances. We are delighted that we are able to deliver a tournament that is ensuring the safety of the public and the players and that will be of such a high standard.”