JOHN’S, Antigua– In a daring transfer to strengthen the way forward for West Indies cricket, Cricket West Indies (CWI) has awarded one-year, full-time academy contracts to 30 younger cricketers as a part of its continued funding in rising expertise.
The announcement marks a pivotal second for each the boys’s and ladies’s growth pathways, because the packages emphasize high-performance coaching and long-term profession preparation.
For the primary time, the Males’s Academy can be based mostly full-time on the CWI-owned Coolidge Cricket Floor (CCG) in Antigua, offering a state-of-the-art hub for growth. In the meantime, the Ladies’s Academy, which started in the course of the 2023/24 season, will proceed its regional focus, providing younger feminine cricketers entry to high-performance sources via coaching camps at CCG and inside their residence territories.
A recreation changer
This 12 months’s Males’s Academy options 15 gamers underneath the age of 23, chosen for his or her potential to contribute to West Indies cricket on the regional and worldwide ranges. With entry to devoted technical groups and world-class amenities, the gamers will obtain intensive coaching and growth over the following 12 months. This system not solely focuses on bettering cricket expertise but in addition emphasizes private growth, management, and media engagement, getting ready gamers for the calls for of knowledgeable cricket profession.
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Three graduates from the earlier 12 months’s Academy cohort have already earned franchise contracts, a testomony to this system’s success. The 2024/25 Males’s Academy contracts have been awarded to: Ackeem Auguste, Jediah Blades, Joshua Bishop, Teddy Bishop, McKenny Clarke, Rivaldo Clarke, Mavendra Dindyal, Nathan Edward, Justin Jaggersar, Johann Layne, Zishan Motara, Michael Palmer, Kelvin Pitman, Renico Smith, and Carlon Tuckett.
Constructing a powerful basis
The Ladies’s Academy continues to focus on CWI’s dedication to growing girls’s cricket throughout the area. This 12 months’s 15 contract recipients will profit from specialised assist of their residence territories, in addition to take part in coaching camps at CCG all year long. They will even have the chance to compete in a world tour, gaining worthwhile publicity on the worldwide stage.
The 2024/25 Ladies’s Academy contracts have been awarded to: Asabi Callendar, Jahzara Claxton, NaiJanni Cumberbatch, Shabika Gajnabi, Jannillea Glasgow, Realeanna Grimmond, Briana Harricaharan, Shawnisha Hector, Trishan Holder, Djenaba Joseph, Nyia Latchman, Samara Ramnath, Shunelle Sawh, Steffie Soogrim, and Kate Wilmott.
A holistic strategy to growth
CWI Director of Cricket, Miles Bascombe, underscored the importance of those academy contracts in bridging the hole between junior and senior ranges. “The CWI Academies are instrumental in making certain each women and men obtain the assist they should succeed internationally,” Bascombe stated. “By specializing in holistic growth and offering tailor-made, high-performance programming, we’re accelerating the expansion of our rising gamers and securing a vivid future for West Indies cricket.”
Bascombe emphasised that the academies are an important a part of CWI’s technique to develop gamers for worldwide cricket. He identified the significance of giving younger gamers entry to a complete program that features not solely ability enhancement but in addition important off-field components corresponding to management coaching and media engagement, that are key to navigating knowledgeable profession.
Shaping the way forward for West Indies cricket
With contracts working from October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025, this system guarantees to raise the event of each female and male cricketers, making certain that they’re well-prepared to signify the West Indies on the worldwide stage. These initiatives are a important a part of CWI’s long-term imaginative and prescient for the game, aiming to repeatedly provide the senior groups with gamers who’re outfitted to carry out on the highest stage.
By offering these younger cricketers with a strong pathway to skilled cricket, CWI stays steadfast in its mission to develop world-class expertise and solidify West Indies’ aggressive presence within the worldwide enviornment.
