Kingston, Jan 26 (IANS): In a significant development, Cricket West Indies (CWI) announced it had signed a four-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA), with a commitment to achieve pay equity for their male and female players being the standout point.

"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."

"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," said Dr. Kishore Shallow, CWI President.

West Indies now join New Zealand, India, Australia, South Africa and England in moving towards gender pay equity in cricket. The MOU outlines plans 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 October 1, 2027.

"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," said Johnny Grave, CEO of CWI.

CWI also said the MOU will see the introduction of opportunities for compensation enhancement for both International and Regional Men, signifying a commitment by the organisation to acknowledge and reward excellence.

In addition to unprecedented levels of prize money on offer for regional tournaments, there are new team and individual incentive bonuses available for the top performers in the system.

The top contract band values for men at international and regional level have also been increased, underscoring the commitment to fostering a culture of player growth, improvement and high performance.

The MOU has a provision of aligning the performance grading criteria for international women's and regional men’s contracts with the established standards for international men, ensuring a uniform evaluation process across domestic and international cricket from October 1, 2024.

“Achieving gender parity and equity has always been a strategic objective of our players' union, and we've certainly done so with our female members. Without a doubt, this is a truly historic and exciting time for our membership as the MOU addresses most levels of our pay scale.”

“As we operate within a very fluid cricketing landscape, we are duty bound to conscientiously reward our regional and international players within the constraints of CWI's budget and agree on policies that will produce and promote world class performances,” concluded Wavell Hinds, President and CEO of WIPA.