Patrons watching a game at Sabina Park - Contributed

Damien O'Donohoe, chief executive of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), is anticipating a fifty per cent increase in the number of global television viewers for this year's second staging of the tournament.

This, he says, is as a result of an increase in demand by a number of international broadcasters, including BT Sport in the United Kingdom, ESPN 3 in North America, Fox Sports in Australia, and Sony Six of India.

"Last year, the tournament was broadcast to close to 36 million viewers, and this year were are looking at over 70 million," said O'Donohoe.

expectation

"A large part of this expectation is based on the success and uptake of the last staging, as well as new deals that have struck with broadcasters across some of cricket's main markets."

"With this in mind, it is safe to say that not only is the tournament attracting new viewers, but it has also grown to the point where it could be viewed as second to the IPL in terms of a global television audience."

Ten Sports of Pakistan and Bangladesh, Sony in Sri Lanka, the Middle East's OSN and Sommet Sports of New Zealand) are some of the other networks who are down to broadcast the league.

The tournament, which last year had the Jamaica Tallawahs coming out on top, is set to bowl off on July 11 in Grenada.

Among some of the additions to this year's event will be an increase in the number of international players taking part.

This include, enigmatic England batsman, Kevin Pietersen, and top-rated Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal.

Pietersen has been listed to join St Lucia Zouks, who finished at the bottom of the preliminary round standings last season, while Ajmal has been earmarked to turn out for Antigua Hawksbills, who ended second to last.

The Tallawahs with Chris Gayle, Kumar Sangakkara and Muttiah Muralitharan defeated Lasith Malinga and Tilakarathne's Guyana Amazon Warriors during last season's finals.