ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Financial constraints have forced Cricket West Indies (CWI) to significantly alter and in some instances cut some of their regional competitions next year.
From left: CWI chief executive officer Chris Dehring; CWI president Dr Kishore Shallow and Director of Cricket, Miles Bascombe at CWIs quarterly press conference.This was revealed on Wednesday by CWI’s chief executive officer, Chris Dehring and Director of Cricket, Miles Bascombe, who both admitted that 2026 would be a challenging year for the region’s governing cricket body with its revenue expected to drop significantly.
Among some of the casualties is CWI’s Under-17 tournament, which has been scrapped, the women’s tournaments will be merged, while the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) and the West Indies Academy have been axed from the men’s tournaments.
Speaking during CWI’s quarterly press conference, Dehring said CWI was scheduled to host over 33 events next year, including tours of Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Pakistan.
He explained that based on the financial model of the ICC, the West Indies was not set to benefit from hosting either of the three tours.
Dehring said with the profits from co-hosting the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup already gone, tough decisions had to be made in CWI’s best interest.
“We have to take an honest look at ourselves and understand that we’re not going to get out of where we are without a long-term vision, a long-term plan, and an execution of those plans based on the resources that we have.
“…The year 2025-2026 is going to be a very challenging financial year for us,” Dehring said.
“…When we host countries like India or England, we are able to hold our head above water because those tours tend to pay for themselves, international broadcast rights for the television products that we produce help us to fund all the development programmes, all the tournaments that we host every year
“When we have to host Sri Lanka, Pakistan and New Zealand, as much as we enjoy playing the cricket against them, hosting those teams come with a financial price. It’s a price we have to pay to keep our seat at the head table at the ICC and retain our Full Membership, so we have to host these tours, they are a part of the Future Tours programme that we agreed to.
“But we’re not going to be able to recoup even the television production costs of those tours, much less make a profit to pay for all the developmental tournaments. People don’t appreciate the number of events and tournaments that CWI hosts. We host over 33 events next year, tours, tournaments, overseas tours, domestic leagues, training camps and that is slightly reduced because we’ve had to make some fairly significant changes to those tournaments and tours, simply because we’re not going to have the cash,” he further added.
Dehring said CWI has formulated a “four-pronged” attack aimed at addressing those financial issues, which included continued lobbying with the ICC to restructure its financial model, reengineering its domestic tournaments, working closer with CARICOM and getting more financial support from companies in the Caribbean.
As it relates to changes in regional tournaments, Bascombe said there would be a reduction in the number of matches across competitions, with the CCC and WI Academy also being removed.
He said the women’s tournaments would see the ODI and T20 formats being merged into a singular tournament.
Bascombe said with the Under-17 tournament being withdrawn, there would be an extended Under-19 tournament, with players being exposed to both the red and white ball format.
Despite the major cutbacks, he said cricketers in the region would still have more than enough opportunities to showcase their skills and vie for places in the West Indies teams.
“The changes to these tournaments, though forced, we have tried to ensure that there is enough cricket that we can have a good account of our player pool.
“Players have enough time and opportunity to give a good account of themselves and make themselves eligible for selection to West Indies teams,” Bascombe said.
