Cricket West Indies (CWI) and the West Indies Gamers’ Affiliation (WIPA) have signed a “historic” four-year MoU to promote gender pay equity inside West Indies cricket. A media launch stated that the MoU “outlines plans to obtain parity in worldwide and regional match charges, worldwide captain’s allowances, worldwide workforce prize cash and regional particular person prize cash for all West Indies cricketers by 1 October 2027.”
The MoU aligns the efficiency grading standards for worldwide girls’s and regional males’s contracts with the established requirements for worldwide males, making certain a uniform analysis course of throughout home and worldwide cricket from October 1, 2024. Calling it a “groundbreaking growth,” the discharge additional stated CWI needs to create a extra equitable taking part in area and an surroundings the place “expertise is valued no matter gender”.
The MoU is for the interval between October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2027 and contains all agreements in respect of participant remuneration, and up to date phrases and situations throughout the West Indies system.
A few of the vital options agreed upon within the MoU are:
“This can be a historic day for West Indies cricket,” Dr Kishore Shallow, president of CWI, stated. “As we overhaul the compensation buildings and align efficiency grading, we’re taking a major step towards making a extra inclusive and progressive cricket framework. This step displays our unwavering dedication to gender equality and acknowledges the immense contributions of feminine gamers to West Indies cricket.
“Within the previous 12 months, we undertook substantial enhancements to our journey coverage, mandating that the West Indies Senior Ladies’s workforce journey business-class on all prolonged worldwide flights and are accommodated in single rooms throughout worldwide assignments. This aligns seamlessly with the established coverage for West Indies Senior Males’s excursions. At present, with the signing of this MOU, we take one other important stride in narrowing the gender hole inside our cricketing group.”
The discharge additional acknowledged that the “MoU additionally introduces alternatives for compensation enhancement for each worldwide and regional males, and new workforce and particular person incentive bonuses for the highest performers within the system. The highest contract band values for males at worldwide and regional degree have additionally been elevated, underscoring the dedication to fostering a tradition of participant development, enchancment and excessive efficiency.”
“Attaining gender parity and equity has all the time been a strategic goal of our gamers’ union, and we have definitely carried out so with our feminine members,” Wavell Hinds, president and CEO of WIPA stated. “For sure, it is a really historic and thrilling time for our membership because the MOU addresses most ranges of our pay scale. As we function inside a really fluid cricketing panorama, we’re responsibility certain to carefully reward our regional and worldwide gamers inside the constraints of CWI’s funds and agree on insurance policies that can produce and promote world class performances.”
