CRICKET West Indies (CWI) yesterday announced the formation of a new Emerging Players Academy, aimed at supporting the development of world-class players from the Caribbean.

The Academy, which will run annually, will utilise the facilities at the Coolidge Cricket Ground – the new Home of West Indies Cricket, where the best young male and female cricketers will come to Antigua throughout the year for several High-Performance training and development camps.

The first intake for the CWI Emerging Players Academy will start in July 2022 and run for a year. Up to 30 players, aged between 19 and 25 years will be selected from both the Men’s and Women’s talent pools.

The aim is to bridge the gap after the West Indies Under-19 level and assist their progression into one of the six Territorial Board Franchise squads, with the intention that they will graduate to earn one of the 15 retainer contracts available in each team.

Players selected for the CWI Emerging Players Academy will be first expected to meet the CWI minimum fitness requirements before they will be exposed to high-quality training programmes and camps in Antigua.

The programme will focus on developing the players holistically and include specific aspects of the game away from the pitch, such as media engagements, financial management, personal development, and leadership.

Players will also enjoy playing opportunities through the CPL Emerging Players’ partnership with CWI and the Emerging Players team that participated in the annual CG Insurance Super50 Cup.

Jimmy Adams, Director of Cricket stated: “For some time, CWI has been looking at ways of bridging that critical gap between our junior and professional levels and this Academy initiative provides us with a great start towards achieving this.

The programme will play an important role in building regional capacity within High-Performance player support – technical, physical, mental, and personal development.

The programme will also set a template for our territories to mirror as they build their individual High-Performance pathway programmes.