CPL 2015: Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel Win Their First CPL Title, Dwayne Bravo Sets CPL Record With 28 Wickets
Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel (later Trinbago Knight Riders) won their first CPL title on 26 July 2015 at Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, beating Barbados Tridents by 20 runs. Kamran Akmal scored 60 as Player of the Match; Dwayne Bravo won Player of the Tournament with 28 wickets — then a CPL season record.
Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel — the franchise that would be rebranded as Trinbago Knight Riders ahead of the 2016 season — won their first Caribbean Premier League title on 26 July 2015 at Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain, defeating Barbados Tridents by 20 runs in the CPL Season 3 final. Kamran Akmal scored 60 runs as Player of the Match. Dwayne Bravo won Player of the Tournament with 28 wickets across the competition — a new CPL single-season record at the time — alongside 173 runs. Chris Gayle (Jamaica Tallawahs) was the season's top run-scorer with 430 runs, including a century.
Dwayne Bravo: 28 Wickets — Setting the CPL Season Record
Dwayne Bravo's CPL 2015 campaign — 28 wickets across the season plus 173 runs, earning Player of the Tournament — was the most dominant individual bowling performance in CPL history up to that point, setting a new season record. Bravo, Trinidad and Tobago's right-arm fast-medium bowler, death-over specialist, and one of West Indian cricket's most celebrated franchise performers, brought the full range of his T20 bowling skills to CPL conditions — yorkers, slower balls, cutters, and the ability to maintain pressure across the death overs while taking wickets. His 28 wickets, achieved with a best return of 5/23, reflected not just wicket-taking but the ability to dismiss batters at the moments when games are decided: the death overs, when run-rate pressure and wicket-fall combine most destructively.
From Red Steel to Trinbago Knight Riders: The Franchise Rebrand
Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel's 2015 CPL title was the franchise's only championship under that name — ahead of the 2016 season, Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment acquired ownership and rebranded the team as Trinbago Knight Riders, connecting the franchise to the Bollywood star's Knight Riders brand (also behind Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL and other franchise entities globally). The rebranded TKR would go on to win CPL titles in 2017, 2018, and 2020 — giving the franchise a combined total of four CPL championships across the Red Steel (2015) and TKR (2017, 2018, 2020) eras, making them the most decorated franchise in CPL history.
CPL 2015 in Context
CPL Season 3 (2015) was the competition's third year — a stage at which the franchise model, the broadcast deal, and the player recruitment networks had matured enough to attract the quality overseas players (Gayle, Akmal, others) that gave CPL its full T20 entertainment proposition. Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel's championship gave Caribbean cricket's home territory a first home-ground champion — Port of Spain's Queen's Park Oval hosting both the final and the winning franchise in what was a genuinely local triumph. Bravo's record wicket haul, the large overseas player contingent, and the competitive intensity of the knock-out stages confirmed that CPL had, by 2015, established itself as a genuine major franchise competition rather than a regional novelty.
Frequently asked questions
Who won CPL 2015?
Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel (now Trinbago Knight Riders) won CPL 2015 (Season 3), beating Barbados Tridents by 20 runs at Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain on 26 July 2015. Kamran Akmal (60 runs) was Player of the Match. Dwayne Bravo won Player of the Tournament with 28 wickets.
What is Dwayne Bravo's CPL wicket record?
Dwayne Bravo set the CPL single-season wicket record with 28 wickets for Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel in CPL 2015, earning Player of the Tournament alongside 173 runs. His best figures were 5/23.