Durrant Pate/Contributor

Kingsmen Sports Enterprise is the new Jamaican franchise owner in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), though its official team name is yet to be confirmed publicly.

The CPL announced earlier this week that Sabina Park, the home of cricket in Jamaica, will host four matches this year, marking the league’s return to Jamaica for the first time since 2019. The 2026 edition is due to run from early August until September 21.

Kingsmen—a group which recently invested in one of the new Pakistan Super League (PSL) teams—operated by Fawad Sarwar, a Pakistani entrepreneur based in the United States, who declared in a said in a press release that the return of a Jamaican CPL franchise would act as an “economic engine” and was designed to promote the island as “a global hub for cricket, culture and sportainment”.

Sarwar was involved in the recent purchase of one of the two new franchises in the PSL, which will be named Hyderabad Houston Kingsmen, and also runs Chicago Kingsmen in Minor League Cricket in the United States. For CPL’s chief executive, Pete Russell, “The return of a Jamaican franchise and matches at Sabina Park is something fans have been calling for, and we’re delighted to be working closely with the Government of Jamaica to make this happen.

The Tallawahs were the last team from Jamaica to play in the CPL. They are a three-time CPL champions but have not featured in the last two editions. The franchise’s most recent owner, Kris Persaud, sold it back to the CPL in late 2023, citing a lack of support from the Jamaican government, and bought the rights to a new team in Antigua, which became the Antigua and Barbuda Falcons.

The GMR Group, an Indian infrastructure conglomerate which co-owns the Delhi Capitals and has a portfolio of other teams around the world, were in advanced talks to revive the Jamaica franchise last year, sending a delegation to the CPL final.

However, the planned deal fell through.