ST. JOHN’S, An­tigua Crick­et West In­dies (CWI) has marked a ground­break­ing mile­stone in West In­dies crick­et by award­ing year-long an­nu­al con­tracts to four­teen women play­ers across the re­gion. 

This first-time ini­tia­tive is a sig­nif­i­cant step for­ward in CWI’s strate­gic com­mit­ment to elite and high-per­for­mance crick­et and sig­nals a con­tin­ued in­vest­ment in the growth of the women’s game in the Caribbean. This ex­pan­sion brings the to­tal of con­tract­ed re­gion­al play­ers to 104 for the year and 164 in to­tal, in­clud­ing se­nior and acad­e­my play­ers.

Trinidad and To­ba­go's 21-year-old Shali­ni Sama­roo, a right-arm off­break bowler and left-hand batswoman; KD Jazz Mitchell, 19, a right-arm fast medi­um bowler and bat­ter; and Re­niece Boyce, 27, an ex­pe­ri­ence West In­dies wick­et­keep­er/bat­ter, are among the women con­tract­ed.

CWI Di­rec­tor of Crick­et, Miles Bas­combe, not­ed the sig­nif­i­cance of this ini­tia­tive: "Award­ing con­tracts to these tal­ent­ed fe­male play­ers un­der­scores CWI’s com­mit­ment to ad­vanc­ing crick­et in the re­gion. We are ex­treme­ly proud of the Ma­roon War­riors, who are on their way back from an im­pres­sive se­mi-fi­nal show­ing at the Women’s T20 World Cup. The on­ly way to en­sure that West In­dies teams, both men and women, have con­sis­tent show­ings at the in­ter­na­tion­al lev­el is to en­sure the de­vel­op­ment and growth at the re­gion­al lev­el. CWI is ded­i­cat­ed to mak­ing this fur­ther in­vest­ment in our re­gion­al tal­ent and build­ing a strong foun­da­tion for fu­ture suc­cess, which is in line with our strate­gic plan."

He said, "These con­tracts re­in­force CWI’s goal of sup­port­ing play­ers as they progress along the path­way to elite per­for­mance, cre­at­ing a sus­tain­able pipeline of tal­ent that can per­form on the glob­al stage. Along­side the fe­male con­tracts, CWI has al­so re­newed an­nu­al con­tracts for 90 male play­ers across six ter­ri­to­ries, main­tain­ing its com­mit­ment to build­ing re­gion­al strength across both men’s and women’s crick­et."

Open­ing bats­man Evin Lewis, who scored an un­beat­en 102 runs that helped the West In­dies beat Sri Lan­ka in the third and fi­nal One Day In­ter­na­tion­al (ODI) on Sat­ur­day by eight wick­ets, is among 15 play­ers, men's play­ers from Trinidad and To­ba­go. Navin Bidaisee, 24, and Cephas Coop­er, 25, are the two play­ers in the Un­der 25 age group that have been of­fered con­tracts. 

Con­tract­ed Re­gion­al Play­ers List 2024/2025

14 Women Con­tract­ed Play­ers

Bar­ba­dos: Shani­ka Bruce, Al­isa Scant­le­bury

Guyana: Shenet­ta Grim­mond, Plaf­fi­ana Milling­ton, Mandy Man­gru

Ja­maica: Celi­na Whyte

Trinidad & To­ba­go: Shali­ni Sama­roo, KD Jazz Mitchell, Re­niece Boyce

Lee­ward Is­lands: Meli­cia Clarke, Kim­ber­ley An­tho­ny

Wind­ward Is­lands: Ear­nisha Fontaine, Abi­ni St. Jean, Ner­is­sa Crafton,

90 Male Con­tract­ed Play­ers (by ter­ri­to­ry):

BAR­BA­DOS

​Kadeem Al­leyne (U25*), Shaquille Cum­ber­batch, Do­minic Drakes, Jonathan Drakes, Matthew Forde, Chaim Alex­is Hold­er, Chemar Hold­er, Akeem Jor­dan, Jair McAl­lis­ter, Zachary Mc­Cask­ie, Shayne Mose­ley, Ray­mon Reifer, Ke­mar Smith, Jomel War­ri­can and Kevin Wick­ham (U25*).

GUYANA

​Kevlon An­der­son (U25*), Ronal­do Al­imo­hamed, Tage­nar­ine Chan­der­paul, Tevin Im­lach, Matthew Nan­du, Ash­mead Nedd, Ray­mond Perez, Veerasam­my Per­maul Ke­mol Sa­vory, Ju­nior Sin­clair, Kevin Sin­clair, Nial Smith, Isai Thorne (U25*), Sy­lus Tyn­dall and Sachin Singh.

JA­MAICA

​An­dre Bai­ley, Brad Barnes, Jer­maine Black­wood, Car­los Brown, Gor­don Bryan, John Camp­bell, Jor­dan John­son (U25*), Ab­hi­jai Mans­ingh, Kirk McKen­zie (U25*), Odain Or­land Mc­Cat­ty, Mar­quino Mind­ley, Ro­maine Mor­ris, Jeav­or Roy­al, Peat Salmon and Ojay Shields

LEE­WARD IS­LANDS

Jew­el An­drew (U25*), Col­in Archibald, Jaleel Clarke, Rah­keem Corn­wall, Daniel Do­ram, Kari­ma Gore, Justin Greaves, Jah­mar Hamil­ton, Kofi James, Je­re­mi­ah Louis, Mikyle Louis, Cameron Pen­nyfeath­er, Javier Spencer, Os­hane Thomas and Hay­den Walsh.

TRINIDAD AND TO­BA­GO

Navin Bidaisee (U25*), Yan­nic Cari­ah, Bryan Charles, Cephas Coop­er (U25*), Shan­non Gabriel, Jyd Goolie, Ter­rance Hinds, Amir Jan­goo, Evin Lewis, Ja­son Mo­hammed, Kjorn Ot­t­ley, An­der­son Phillip, Khary Pierre, Isa­iah Ra­jah and Tion Web­ster.

WIND­WARD IS­LANDS

Sunil Am­bris, Darel Cyrus, Ken­neth Dem­ber, Shadrack Descartes, John­nel Eu­gene, Keon Gas­ton, Khamal Hamil­ton, Ryan John, Noelle Leo (U25*), Dar­ius Mar­tin, Ki­mani Melius, Stephan Pas­cal (U25*), Je­re­my Solozano, Shamar Springer and Gilon Tyson.

CWI said that Ter­ri­to­r­i­al Boards are man­dat­ed to have a min­i­mum of two Un­der 25 play­ers in their pool of fif­teen con­tract­ed play­ers.