The West Indies players will be offered more flexible and enhanced contracts including exclusive retainers for Test and limited-overs cricket. The highest-paid category would be for players who feature in all formats, with a maximum retainer of over USD 300,000 including match fees. The three-man selection panel lead by Courtney Browne has shortlisted players for every category, which is expected to be made public soon.
The new contract policy, one of Cricket West Indies CEO Johnny Grave’s visions when he took up the job in early 2017, along with the previously-announced amnesty has three levels, and will initially last for nine months. The new contracts will be offered on July 1, 2018, at the same time as the domestic retainer contracts.
The contracts have been split into three categories. Category A will comprise players who play predominantly Tests and ODIs. Category B will be for only Test specialists. Category C will include contracts for players featuring in only ODIs and T20s.
ESPNcricinfo understands six players have been offered Category C contracts in the first batch: Carlos Brathwaite, Jason Mohammed, Evin Lewis, Rovman Powell, Ashley Nurse and Kesrick Williams.
According to Grave, the board will keep player remuneration private and confidential. He also highlighted that a player contracted in the A category can earn over USD 300,000, independent of domestic T20 deals, while players in other contract categories will also stand to earn six-figure retainers.
ESPNcricinfo believes the dollar value of the new retainers are more than double the previous highest-earning contracts that have been offered to players in the past three years following the abandoned 2014 tour to India.
Under the previous contract arrangement, players were contracted for one year only. A category A contract was worth USD 140,000, Category B USD120,000 and Category C USD100,000, with reduced match retainers that were redirected to pay domestic players in the revamped Professional Cricket League.
Although unconfirmed from CWI, it is understood that individual match fees for ODIs and T20s will now be USD 5000 per match for limited-overs games.
The CWI also extend the existing Memorandum of Understanding with the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) by another year. “The first thing we did was extend the CWI-WIPA MoU by one year until end of 2019 World Cup cycle”, Grave told ESPNcricinfo. “While the overall aim was to create flexible contracts, when I realised the MoU was ending in 2018, but yet our television and sponsorship deals were ending in 2019, it made sense to extend it and link our major revenues with WIPA.”
Grave further explained why only six players received Category C contracts, highlighting they were solely chosen by the selection panel led by Browne. “I create paper work and numbers, selectors chose those to award contracts. Jimmy (Jimmy Adams, CWI director of cricket) and I weren’t involved in that.
“However the logic behind those is – Carlos, although he is not in ODI team, is our T20 captain, Jason [Mohammed] is the ODI vice-captain and Nurse has performed well this year in limited-overs cricket. Evin, Rovman and Kesrick are upcoming players we want to offer incentives to want to play and be loyal to West Indies and not T20s leagues which for good reason are already after their talents.”
None of West Indies’ most popular players have been offered contracts yet. Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Samuel Badree and Darren Sammy will all be offered pro-rata contracts based on their performances in the upcoming series in the short term.
“Sammy and Bravos don’t play for West Indies at the moment, so can’t offer contracts to people who are not in the team,” Grave said. “Pollard, Narine and Badree are only in T20 team, (and) white-ball contracts are for those who play ODIs and T20s. It’s a view of the selectors that both Pollard and Narine have to show form in Regional Super50 one-day competition to regain selection in the ODI team. If they play that tournament and perform I don’t see why they wouldn’t get recalled.
“Obviously post amnesty, Gayle and Marlon played in England, if we had won the series and they had made lots of runs, they probably would have got contracts. So I think the selectors want to see them in New Zealand, Super50 and qualifiers, but I suspect at some stage in 2018 they will get contracts given the new system,” Grave said.
Grave is currently in Auckland to meet the West Indies players to explain the details of the various contracts and sort their concerns. Both Grave and Adams agree with the selectors that the main priority is for West Indies to qualify for the 2019 World Cup, and players would need to commit to that task ahead of T20 tournaments like the Big Bash League and the Pakistan Super League. The Big Bash League starts on December 19 and runs till February 4. The PSL begins soon after, on February 22.
The Regional Super50 falls between Big Bash and the PSL – it will be played between January 31 and February 24, ending a week before the World Cup Qualifiers, scheduled to begin on March 2.
Grave said the CWI will be flexible in allowing players to play T20 Leagues, but the priority will be the Qualifiers. “Flexibility is there given that these (domestic Twenty20) leagues’ schedules change yearly and we will certainly treat players on a case-by-case basis,” Grave said. “But considering the importance of qualifiers right now that will take priority over a player’s individual needs, so I’d imagine if players seriously want to be part of World Cup plans they will play Super50.
“I’m going off to New Zealand and I will tell players effectively to get in the ODI team someone has to be dropped. If they can play the full Super50, and perform, it gives themselves a better chance of getting in than playing 2-3 games and having to perform superbly. But of course, the team could get whitewashed in New Zealand and we are looking to make squad changes. However, if they perform changes won’t be easy to come by.”
According to Grave, the amnesty would soon be over, and the players would be told about the minimum number of domestic matches they are expected to play in order to qualify to play for West Indies. “The amnesty will be replaced by a technical committee which will work out eligibility criteria,” Grave said. “The meeting probably will happen either before Christmas or early in the new year. And I would be surprised if they suggested anything else other than players have to play Super50.”
Source: ESPN Crickinfo