In an attempt to incentivise regional cricket and make it more attractive to prospective West Indies players, Cricket West Indies (CWI) announced on Monday it will be pumping over US$2.5 million into the regional game over a four-year period.
Speaking at a press conference at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre in Port of Spain, Trinidad on Monday, CWI president Kishore Shallow relayed the news on the eve of the CG United Regional Super50 tournament, which begins in Trinidad on Tuesday.
Starting with the 2023 edition, the Super50 tournament will see the championship-winning team walking away with a cash prize of US$100,000 - an increase from the previous US$20,000.
The region's red-ball players are also set to see greater rewards, starting with the 2024 West Indies regional four-day championship, as the tournament winner will receive a US$250,000 purse - a monumental increase from the previous prize of US$30,000.
Shallow said it is CWI's mission to "narrow the wide gap between regional and international cricket," and these monetary incentives form the pathway to that goal.
"On the field, we believe we have to find ways to incentivise our players to create greater competition for our regional tournaments. In an attempt to narrow the gap and get more intense and competitive regional cricket, we are going to close that gap and improve the skillset of our players.
"We believe it is also quite important that we incentivise our red-ball players even more, because some of them are only playing red-ball cricket. We have obviously heard the concerns about Test cricket, and we believe it is very important that we reward them well."
CWI director of cricket Miles Bascombe spoke about the importance of getting the region's best players to lay a proper foundation in the first-class set-up.
"I think it's a discussion about the skill you develop as a red-ball player. That game awareness and the technical ability you need to have. Those are foundational for any form of cricket," Bascombe said. "We have to keep discussing with our players to get them to understand that there is value in playing the red-ball format.
"We have also ensured that we have windows for CPL and windows for IPL. It doesn't necessarily mean that you miss out on opportunities."
The CWI president said it was of utmost importance to draw regional players away from the lure of T20 tournaments and other franchise leagues outside the region.
"To put that into context, we have players who sometimes leave the regional tournaments while they are ongoing to go into leagues for US$5,000 or $10,000. It's not only in the players' interests, but in the franchise and territorial boards' interests to keep these players engaged," Shallow said.
"(The) US$250,000 (winning prize) is by no means small change. I can't tell what per-cent increase that is, but it is quite significant. That is the direction we are going to incentivise and reward our players to keep them engaged."
The second-placed team in the 2023 Regional Super50, which bow
