Four West Indies men’s team players have been offered contacts for the first time, left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie, right-handed batter Keacy Carty, and left-handed batters Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Alick Athanaze. For the West Indies women’s team, two players have been offered contracts for the first time, all-rounders Zaida James and Sheneta Grimmond, announced Cricket West Indies.
“With a busy year of cricket ahead, in all three formats, we have held several detailed discussions with the two Head Coaches on the brand of cricket they want to play. We are very clear in the direction we want to go. The players who have been offered contracts are among those who we expect to feature, as we look to build towards challenging for the top spot when we host and compete in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 on home soil,” said selector Desmond Haynes.
“We also have away Test Series in Australia and England – these are two major assignments whilst in the 50-over format we look to build a nucleus of players aimed towards the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2027,” he further added.
Three top West Indies players have refused to be a part of the central contracts, revealed the country’s cricket board on Sunday, 10 December. With just six months away from the ICC T20 World Cup, Nicholas Pooran, Jason Holder and Kyle Mayers have declined central contracts from West Indies, amidst the power struggle between the players and the board.
West Indies cricket team have been in steady decline over the past 2-3 years and they even failed to make it to the World Cups in in 2022 (T20) and 2023 (ODI). Windies cricket board have however mentioned that the three players will be available for all T20I matches for the side. West Indies co-host the T20 World Cup alongside the United States of America in the month of June, right after the Indian Premier League.
