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Rovman Powell has challenged his Jamaica Kingsmen to turn a narrow defeat into new beginnings as the Caribbean Premier League returns to Sabina Park for the first time in half a decade, on Tuesday evening.
The Kingsmen’s captain fronted the media on Monday, ahead of today’s 7 p.m. clash against the Barbados Tridents, still smarting from a last-ball, two-wicket loss to the Antigua and Barbuda Falcons in the 2026 season-opener.
Rather than dwelling on the gut-wrenching finish, Powell is urging his young squad to embrace the occasion, hoping there will be a passionate home crowd who have been starved of franchise cricket.
EXCITING TIMES
“It’s exciting times for us as a cricketing country. CPL cricket hasn’t been in Jamaica for the last five or six years,” Powell said. “Hopefully, tomorrow we can give the fans a win, but what I’m looking forward to is people coming out and supporting us as we start a new journey here in cricket.
“If you play a game and it goes to the last ball, that shows how close the game was, and that shows that any team could have won. Unfortunately for us, we were on the losing end,” Powell reflected.
“I think we played some good cricket. We just didn’t play good cricket for long enough periods, and in an elite competition like this, when you do that, you tend to come out on the losing end.”
JAMAICAN FLAVOUR
The Kingsmen’s squad features a distinctly Jamaican flavour, with rising stars Vitel Lawes, Jeavor Royal, and Kirk McKenzie all at the “infancy of their international or elite cricketing career”, according to Powell.
However, he sees that as the foundation of a long-term project.
“When you start a programme like what Kingsmen have done in investing so much in cricket in Jamaica, you have to start with a young core. If you don’t have a plan for the future, then you don’t have any plan,” he stated. “It’s just for those young players to learn, and learn fast.”
The skipper distinguished inexperience and potential.
 “Sometimes you are young in terms of cricketing experience, but not necessarily young in terms of age. But when you look at a new class of guys, especially the local guys, they’re very young in cricketing experience, and they’re very young in age. So that in itself is a bonus.”
CONNECTION
Powell carries a special connection to Jamaican CPL history. The last time a franchise represented the island, he led the Jamaica Tallawahs to championship glory.
“It left a good taste in my mouth, left a good taste in the people of Jamaica’s mouth, to know that the last time there was a CPL team, we were champions, and I was captain.
“Hopefully, this year we can replicate that. It would be difficult with so many young guys. But having said that, if we gel fast enough, if we play consistently good enough, we can do it.”
Asked whether the new franchise tag might lower expectations, but Powell was emphatic.
“No, it’s not a case of settling. A lot has been invested from a financial standpoint with getting the franchise. With us as cricketers, our career is at stake, so it’s not a matter of settling. Each and every year, you want to get better.”