Two of Saint Lucia’s top female cricketers are among the latest cohort of players given central contracts by Cricket West Indies (CWI).
Left-handed all-rounders Qiana Joseph and Zaida James were named in the list of 30 contracted players on Wednesday.
CWI made the announcement on the eve of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, which will be of great comfort to the players going into the global competition in the United Arab Emirates.
Joseph has played 11 One Day Internationals and 11 T20 Internationals since making her debut in 2017 against South Africa.
Just 16 at the time, she would go on to take 16 wickets across both formats, whilst amassing 118 runs in 13 innings.
The 23-year-old has come to the fore as a batter of late. Her aggressive strokeplay has earned her a promotion to the top three in recent matches, after she played that role well in the recent Women’s Caribbean Premier League.
James is in the final days of her teenage years, but she is playing in her second World T20, after starring for West Indies in the Under-19 World Cup in 2023.
Already, she has played 12 ODI’s and 14 T20’s, taking five wickets and compiling 102 runs.
For the first time, CWI has awarded multi-year contracts for several of its top players for the next two years on the back of a new four-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in January 2024 between CWI and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA).
In total, 15 senior men’s players have been contracted, with six earning multi-year contracts based on their performances during the 2023-2024 Evaluation Period.
Of the 15 senior women’s players contracted, three were awarded multi-year contracts.
The contract period runs from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025 for the players on a one-year contract.
For the multi-year awarded players, their contracts are from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2026.
(TF/PR)
