Cricket West Indies cuts retainers and suspends two tournaments

Cricket West Indies has announced a 25% cut to international players’ retainer fees, shortened domestic players’ contracts to seven months and suspended this season’s men’s Super50 and women’s T20 Blaze tournaments as part of measures to address financial pressure. International players’ contracts will remain 12 months, the board said. The suspended competitions are to be replaced by men’s and women’s invitational qualification tournaments for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Cricket West Indies said participating national cricket and Olympic bodies, along with governments and private-sector partners, would be responsible for the costs. Dates for the replacement events have not been announced. Chief Executive Chris Dehring said the cost of staging domestic tournaments, including travel, accommodation, salaries, match fees and event operations, was a reason for the changes. He said the board had spent more than US$80 million with domestic airlines over the past 15 years and was facing an immediate cash crunch. Those figures and the characterization of the board’s finances were statements by Dehring.