Cricket West Indies (CWI) and the West Indies Player Association (WIPA) signed an historic four-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) yesterday, which solidifies their commitment to promoting gender pay equity within the West Indies cricket structure.
This was confirmed by an official release from CWI. According to the correspondence, the MOU outlines the strategies that will be utilised to achieve parity in international and regional match fees, international captain’s allowances, international team prize money, and regional individual prize money for all West Indies cricketers by October 1, 2027.
“This strategic initiative is a testament to CWI’s dedication to creating a more equitable playing field and fostering an environment where talent is valued irrespective of gender. The MOU also aligns the performance grading criteria for international women’s and regional men’s contracts with the established standards for international men, ensuring a uniform evaluation process across domestic and international cricket from October 1 2024”, and the release stated.
President of CWI, Dr. Kishore Shallow, stated, “This is a historic day for West Indies cricket. As we overhaul the compensation structures and align performance grading, we are taking a significant step towards creating a more inclusive and progressive cricket framework. This step reflects our unwavering commitment to gender equality and acknowledges the immense contributions of female players to West Indies cricket.”
He highlighted, “In the preceding year, we undertook substantial enhancements to our travel policy, mandating that the West Indies Senior Women’s Team travel business class on all extended international flights and are accommodated in single rooms during international assignments. This aligns seamlessly with the established policy for West Indies senior men’s tours. Today, with the signing of this MOU, we take another significant stride in narrowing the gender gap within our cricketing community.”
The MOU also presents several opportunities for compensation for both the men’s game at the international and regional level, which highlights CWI’s commitment to rewarding excellence. Similarly, new team and individual incentives will be accessible for the respective top performers in the system, which adds to the unprecedented levels of prize money that will be on offer for regional events.
“The top contract band values for men at the international and regional level have also increased, underscoring the commitment to fostering a culture of player growth, improvement, and high performance,” the release stated.
Meanwhile, Johnny Grave, CWI Chief Executive Officer (CEO), stated, “We are proud to embark on this journey towards gender pay equity. The significant increases for our female players demonstrate our dedication to rewarding excellence and promoting fairness in our cricketing community. The increases in prize money, greater rewards for our best-performing players, and higher match fees for players in the starting XIs are all strategic moves to place a greater emphasis on winning.”
Also, WIPA Chief and CEO Wavell Hinds declared, “Achieving gender parity and equity has always been a strategic objective of our players’ union, and we’ve certainly done so with our female members. Without a doubt, this is a truly historic and exciting time for our membership, as the MOU addresses most levels of our pay scale. As we operate within a very fluid cricketing landscape, we are duty-bound to conscientiously reward our regional and international players within the constraints of CWI’s budget and agree on policies that will produce and promote world-class performances.”
