West Indies Women: Is the regional set-up working?
23.03.26, 21:48 Updated 23.03.26, 21:48
Machel Hewitt
Compared to other cricket nations, the West Indies’ women’s team has always been a trailblazer, implementing ideas before they became the norm. The old WICB began handing out central contracts to the region’s women back in 2010, several years before counterparts like South Africa (2013), New Zealand (2013), England (2014), and India (2015) followed suit.
CWI are also ahead of many nations in terms of women’s franchise cricket. The Women’s CPL is one of only four women’s franchise leagues in the world and predates India’s WPL by a year. It is also set to be the first women’s franchise league to expand this year, with the addition of a new Jamaican team.
The success of these measures can be seen most clearly in their matches against Sri Lanka. Before 2010, West Indies’ WODI record against them was: Played 13, Won 3, Lost 10, and zero series victories. In the decade after the introduction of central contracts in 2010, the form table reversed to read: Played 13, Won 10, Lost 3, with four consecutive series wins against the Sri Lankans, both home and away.
Sri Lanka Cricket, realising they had fallen behind the West Indies, began making investments into their own women’s cricket system, starting with a huge push to promote the game in schools in 2016. Ten years on, Sri Lanka now has a sixteen-team women’s club competition and a four-team professional competition, featuring sixty players on a National or ‘A’ team central contract.
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