West Indies commits to achieve gender pay equity

Women's cricketers in the Caribbean have some great news coming their way, as the West Indies have pledged to ensure gender pay equity. In the recent past, the cricket fraternity has seen countries like New Zealand, India, Australia, South Africa, and England put steps in place to ensure pay equity among the genders.

Now, the West Indies is looking to do the same. By signing a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Thursday, January 25, the West Indies have started taking steps towards providing equal pay for all their players, irrespective of their gender.

Cricket West Indies (CWI) and the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) representatives signed the MoU, striving to achieve parity in international and regional match fees, international captain’s allowances, international team prize money, and regional individual prize money for all West Indies cricketers by 1 October 2027.

Dr. Kishore Shallow, President of CWI, said that the step to ensure gender pay equity is a way of acknowledging the immense contribution of female cricketers to West Indies cricket.

"This is a historic day for West Indies cricket. As we overhaul the compensation structures and align performance grading, we are taking a significant step towards creating a more inclusive and progressive cricket framework. This step reflects our unwavering commitment to gender equality and acknowledges the immense contributions of female players to West Indies cricket," Kishore told the International Cricket Council (ICC).

"In the preceding year, we undertook substantial enhancements to our travel policy, mandating that the West Indies Senior Women’s team travel business class on all extended international flights and are accommodated in single rooms during international assignments. This aligns seamlessly with the established policy for West Indies Senior Men's tours. Today, with the signing of this MOU, we take another significant stride in narrowing the gender gap within our cricketing community," he added.

We are proud to embark on this journey towards gender pay equity: CWI CEO Johnny Grave

CWI CEO Johnny Grave said that by implementing a better pay structure and gender pay equity, the board is hopeful to see more success on the field for the West Indies.

"We are proud to embark on this journey towards gender pay equity. The significant increases for our female players demonstrate our dedication to rewarding excellence and promoting fairness in our cricketing community. The increases in prize money, greater rewards for our best-performing players, and higher match fees for players in the starting XIs are all strategic moves to place a greater emphasis on winning," Grave stated.

While the West Indies men's team has won two ODI World Cups (1975 and 1979) and two T20 World Cups (2012 and 2016), the women's team emerged victorious in the T20 World Cup in 2016.