St. John's (Antigua), Jan 9 (IANS): Star West Indies players Darren Sammy, Andre Russell, Sulieman Benn, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Dwayne Bravo were not included in the list of new contracted players issued by the Carribean cricket board for the 2015-2016 period.

Swashbuckling batsman Chris Gayle, who had previously turned down national contracts several times, including last year, is not on the list of centrally contracted players which was increased from 12 to 15.

Spinner Sunil Narine, who had also turned down a contract last year and is currently suspended from bowling in internationals due to an illegal action, also does not feature on the list which was released by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) on Friday.

The contracts was issued for the period from October 1, 2015, to September 30, 2016, include several new batsmen who have debuted in Test over the past year and a half, including Jermaine Blackwood, Leon Johnson, Shane Dowrich, Shai Hope and Rajendra Chandrika.

Leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo was also added, as well as fast bowlers Shannon Gabriel and Sheldon Cottrell.

WICB's contracted players for 2015-16: Jason Holder, Kraigg Brathwaite, Rajendra Chandrika, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Denesh Ramdin, Devendra Bishoo, Shannon Gabriel, Jermaine Blackwood, Jerome Taylor, Sheldon Cottrell, Shai Hope, Shane Dowrich, Leon Johnson and Kemar Roach.