Three top West Indies players have refused to be a part of the central contracts, revealed the country's cricket board on Sunday, 10 December. With just six months away from the ICC T20 World Cup, Nicholas Pooran, Jason Holder and Kyle Mayers have declined central contracts from West Indies, amidst the power struggle between the players and the board. The CWI announced the list of centrally contracted players, with 14 men and 15 women making the cut. Among the male cricketers, four have been offered central contracts for the first time - Gudakesh Motie, Keacy Carty, Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Alick Athanaze. Zaida James and Sheneta Grimmond have been included in the list of centrally contracted female cricketers for the first time.
Holder's last Test and ODI appearances came in July 2023, against India and Scotland respectively. He captained the West Indies side in 37 Tests and 86 ODIs. Pooran, who hasn't played Test cricket, led West Indies in 17 ODIs out of the 61 he has played in the format, with his last ODI being against Sri Lanka in the World Cup Qualifiers in July. Mayers, who has played 18 Tests and 28 ODIs, began his Test career with a bang, scoring a double hundred on debut to help West Indies prevail in a chase of 395 against Bangladesh. "With a busy year of cricket ahead, in all three formats, we have held several detailed discussions with the two Head Coaches on the brand of cricket they want to play. We are very clear in the direction we want to go. The players who have been offered contracts are among those who we expect to feature, as we look to build towards challenging for the top spot when we host and compete in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 on home soil," said Desmond Haynes, the men's chief selector. "We also have away Test Series in Australia and England - these are two major assignments whilst in the 50-over format we look to build a nucleus of players aimed towards the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2027," he added.
