Cricket West Indies will stage the players draft for the upcoming Professional Cricket League season Today, as they press ahead with plans for the new domestic season despite the uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event will be held via Zoom and will feature just two rounds, with each of the six franchises already pre-selecting 13 players.

For the upcoming season, the requirement obligating franchises to select at least two players from outside of their territory has been discontinued.

Cricket operations manager, Roland Holder, said hosting the draft was a sign CWI was still focused on cricket development despite the current challenges.

“The draft, now in its seventh year, demonstrates that CWI remains committed to our professional cricket structure and system, even in these times of uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Holder.

“The ninety regional players who will be awarded regional franchise contracts, will be able to train and practice professionally as CWI hopes for a return to regional cricket later this year.”

As announced previously, player contracts will be slashed by 50 per cent, and will only be awarded for a six-month period.

This is part of an overall restructuring plan outlined recently by CWI which also sees international player contracts and all CWI employees taking a 50 per cent hit pay cut.
Franchises’ draft pick will be based on their position in the last first class championship. As such, Leeward Islands Hurricanes who finished last, will have the first draft pick, followed by Windward Islands Volcanoes who ended one from bottom.

Champions Barbados Pride will have the final pick in each round.
CWI’s domestic programme has been hard hit by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic with a number of tournaments already postponed or cancelled.

The first class championship was also aborted after eight of the 10 scheduled rounds as territories moved to lock down in order to mitigate against the threat of the virus.