(ESPN) West Indies’ players are set to endure a pay cut, with Cricket West Indies (CWI) announcing a 25% reduction in retainer fees as part of a wide-ranging series of steps being undertaken in what the board has termed “a comprehensive counterattack against all the challenges we face financially, developmentally and competitively”. While international players will remain on 12-month contracts, domestic players will now be on retainer contracts reduced to seven months.

West Indies has been at the forefront of a global trend towards players rejecting central contracts in order to pursue careers as T20 franchise freelancers. CWI’s latest move seems likely to accelerate this trend.

“We appreciate the spirit of cooperation of the West Indies Players’ Association and the players who have demonstrated their understanding of the circumstances we all face,” CWI chief executive Chris Dehring said in a statement. “While not ideal, it is a necessary step towards financial stability.”

Dehring also announced a restructuring of domestic tournaments in the Caribbean, with this year’s editions of the men’s Super50 tournament and the women’s T20 Blaze suspended. CWI has cited operational costs as the primary reason behind that decision.

“Our domestic tournaments as structured historically, where Cricket West Indies bears the entire cost of every national team and tournament – whether it is age-group, development or senior for both men and women – including salaries, match fees, airfares, hotels and event staging costs, are simply unsustainable,” he said. “The high cost of domestic travel and accommodation absorbs too much of our scarce resources every year instead of being deployed for the direct benefit of our cricket.

“Indeed, over eighty million US dollars has been spent by Cricket West Indies with domestic airlines over the past 15 years, without a reciprocating dollar of sponsorship from those beneficiaries. We must also deal with the immediate cash crunch brought about by years of bearing this burden and the crippling financial losses that emanate as a result.”

Some of CWI’s financial pressures, Dehring said, also stemmed from the terms of an ICC loan to the board.

“In July of this year the ICC approved a loan facility to Cricket West Indies totaling US$16 million to provide temporary relief to our chronic cashflow challenge, available in 3 tranches over the next year,” the statement said. “As with any other lender, this loan comes with terms of repayment and conditions that will require Cricket West Indies to attain critical metrics in order to access those funds starting this month.”

With the Super50 tournament suspended, a crucial step in the pipeline to the West Indies men’s ODI team has now been lost. West Indies missed out on qualification for the last ODI World Cup in 2023, and are due to take part in a qualifier, in February-March 2027, for next year’s edition. CWI has announced that it will focus on preparing the ODI players for the World Cup qualifiers by arranging a series of white-ball matches against a visiting England A team in November, followed by an ODI team camp.

West Indies’ unique position in global cricket – as a composite team of independent nation-states – is set to be put to test over the next two years, with individual nations set to send teams to the Pan American Games in Lima next year and to the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028. The top-four finishers from the 2025-26 Super50 tournament have been announced as the qualifiers for the men’s event at the Pan American Games – though that will be a T20 rather than 50-overs tournament – and the top-four finishers from the 2025-26 T20 Blaze will take part in the women’s event.

In place of the suspended Super50 and T20 Blaze, CWI has announced qualification tournaments for the men’s and women’s events at the 2028 LA Olympics. The costs for these tournaments will be borne by the cricket boards of the individual nations.

“These replacement tournaments will be by invitation to the 10 countries under the aegis of Cricket West Indies that qualify for Olympic participation,” Dehring said. “We are excited by these new invitational tournaments, the dates for which are being finalized, as given the higher stakes and prestige, it’s an opportunity for individual countries to galvanize national resources to chase Olympic glory, with the responsibility and cost of participation falling on their respective national cricket & Olympic associations, private sectors, governments and people, hopefully fulfilling a desire to make a meaningfully contribution to their national team’s hunt for Olympic Glory.

“The winners of those tournaments will qualify for the ICC Olympic Qualifying tournaments for a spot in Los Angeles in 2028.”

Next year’s edition of the Women’s Super50, meanwhile, will be replaced by a Best vs Best development tournament. The West Indies Championship, the four-day domestic tournament, will continue with the bilateral-series, 12-game format that was followed in 2025-26. Each team played just one bilateral series of three games with one opponent, with the top three teams on a composite table qualifying for the playoffs.