Cricket West Indies (CWI) today announced a significant change in the travel and accommodation policy for the West Indies Senior Women’s team. With immediate effect, the members of the West Indies Women’s squad will travel business-class for all long-haul international flights and be accommodated in single rooms for all international assignments, bringing it in line with the policy for West Indies Senior Men’s tours.
These decisions were made at the first CWI Board of Directors meeting following the election of the new President Dr. Kishore Shallow in March. Dr. Shallow said the decision represented more progress for the women’s game in the region as the organisation continues its investment to ensure further growth and development. Achieving equality in women’s cricket is a key initiative in CWI’s strategic plan, and this new investment will contribute to increasing the appeal of the women’s game. CWI has worked closely with the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) to put the new policy in place.
Dr. Shallow said: “On International Women’s Day earlier this year, Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley and I, among other things, deliberated over the inequalities in sports. Today, it is pleasing to support champions like Prime Minister Mottley to tilt the scales in leveling the playing field.”
Dr. Shallow added: “The women’s game in international cricket continues to evolve, and CWI must keep apace and, where possible, lead. Introducing these policies and adding a second female to the board as an independent director are monumental strides in the right direction.”
Wavell Hinds, President and CEO of WIPA said: “We welcome this move by CWI in the quest to achieve greater equality within our work environment among our cricketers. We look forward to achieving similar goals in our ongoing negotiations on the renewal of our MOU for another four-year period.”
As part of the commitment towards achieving equality for Women’s players, a new committee has also been approved by the CWI Board of Directors – the Women's Cricket Transformation Committee. This Committee will act in an advisory capacity to CWI’s Director of Cricket and the wider organization.
The Committee’s remit will include but not be limited to recommending strategies geared towards increasing the interest and participation of women and girls in the sport, as well as proposing cricket competitions, events, and pathways that foster competitive women’s and girls’ cricket.
The West Indies Women will be playing their next international fixtures against Ireland in June and July with the schedule to be announced shortly. Following this, they will have a tour of Australia in October where they will play three One-Day Internationals and three T20 Internationals.
In recent years, CWI has committed significant resources towards the development of women’s cricket at all levels and especially the High-Performance pathway. CWI has also hosted several skill-specific camps to develop the women’s talent pool and is due to launch the Women’s Academy later this year to ensure the next generation of players have a world-class system in place to aid their professional development on and off the field.