The last week or so has been one of the most encouraging for West Indies cricket with very positive developments both off and on the field. Beyond the boundary, in the administrative corridors, there was news of discussions held between Cricket West Indies (CWI) President Kishore Shallow and Jamaica’s Sports Minister. Even more encouragingly, there was also the news of imminent consultations to be held between CWI officials and members of Caricom’s Cricket Subcommittee. On the actual field of play, both the West Indies Men’s and Women’s teams recorded significant victories.
As reported in CWI’s June 16, 2026 Press Release, “President of Cricket West Indies (CWI), Dr. the Hon. Kishore Shallow, recently met with Jamaica’s Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon. Olivia “Babsy” Grange, to discuss a range of initiatives aimed at strengthening cricket in Jamaica and contributing to the growth of West Indies cricket. The discussions focused on enhancing collaboration between CWI, the Government of Jamaica and The Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA), with particular emphasis on grassroots development, coaching education, pitch preparation, international hosting opportunities and the long-term growth of the game across the island.
Among the key areas discussed were strengthening partnerships to support schools’ cricket programmes, coach development initiatives, and improved pitch preparation standards throughout Jamaica. The meeting also explored opportunities surrounding cricket’s inclusion in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games and the potential for Jamaican participation on that historic stage.
The parties further discussed efforts to facilitate the return of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) to Jamaica and reaffirmed a shared commitment to ensuring that Sabina Park remains a desirable host venue for international cricket, including bilateral series featuring the West Indies.”
Such discussions between CWI and regional governmental Sports Ministries augur well for the future of West Indies cricket as well as the region as a whole on several levels. Not only in terms of the targeted areas of attention and action implementation, but just as importantly on the potentially positive effect for the development of further opportunities for cricket to serve as a catalyst for enhanced and increased sports tourism to the region.
The Governments, Sports Ministries and National Tourist Boards of Jamaica, Barbados, and most recently Guyana have been admirably active in promoting cricket tourism opportunities to their respective countries. Hopefully, such continued discussions could perhaps even result in Caribbean cricket hosting venues being filled with thousands of spectators for all hosted bilateral series, as they have invariably been for those featuring visits by representative teams of England and Australia!
The CWI Jamaica Sports Ministry meeting was said to be part of Cricket West Indies’ ongoing engagement with regional governments and stakeholders. The overall end result objective having been identified as strengthening the game’s foundations, as well as the positioning of West Indies cricket for long-term success.
Just as importantly, arguable even more so, President Shallow was also scheduled to lead a delegation to engage the CARICOM Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on Cricket, chaired by the President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, His Excellency Mohamed Irfaan Ali, on Wednesday, 17 June 2026. The associated discussions of which had been promised since CWI’s much heralded hosted Stakeholders’ Summit held at the Trinidad Hilton hotel as far back as September 2023.
Hopefully, the CWI-CARICOM Cricket Sub-Committee pow-pow will result in much-needed concrete initiatives for the resuscitation of West Indies cricket. Not the least of which would be a structured programme for the cricket to be played among schoolchildren from ages 5-18 in every one of CWI’s member territories.
The formal addition of the history of West Indies cricket to the curriculum of regional educational institutions is yet another initiative, the immediate implementation of which should now urgently be pursued. Notwithstanding the sad reality that the laundry list of initiatives now needing to be urgently implemented if West Indies cricket’s long-awaited resuscitation is to be achieved anytime soon is as mountainous as St Lucia’s Pitons!
West Indies cricket fans and followers the world over will await with genuine interest to be advised of the outcomes and plans of the scheduled June 17, 2026, CWI-CARICOM Cricket Sub-Committee Meeting. The announcement of which will, hopefully, be just as prompt and timely as CWI’s Media Releases have commendably been of late. Most welcomed evidence of long awaited improvements in CWI’s overall media management having finally been embraced, if not just yet wholly achieved.
While such highly encouraging organisational developments were taking place beyond the boundary, others were happening even more welcomingly on the actual field of play. West Indies Men suffered a rain-affected 0-1 loss to Sri Lanka in the preceding Jamaica-hosted ODI series, the last two matches of which were both completely abandoned as non-results. A series loss which has effectively scuttled their hopes for automatic qualification to the forthcoming 2027 ODI World Cup as one of the ICC’s nine top-ranked teams.
The West Indies are currently sitting in tenth position on the ICC’s most recent ODI team rankings. Only the top eight of which are guaranteed automatic 2027 ODI World Cup qualification. South Africa’s dual status as tournament host and as the current fourth-ranked team will, however, most likely translate into the ninth-ranked team gaining automatic qualification.
Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are all currently ranked ahead of the West Indies. At least one of those would, therefore, have to be overtaken by next year’s March 31 deadline for the West Indies to secure automatic 2027 ODI World Cup Qualification.
As worrying a prospect as that may be, it was effectively, albeit temporarily, swept aside by the West Indies’ thrilling series victory over the visiting Sri Lankans on the T20 series, which immediately followed the preceding ODI matches. With the series tied at one win apiece, the West Indies scrambled a very thrilling five-wicket win, with just two balls remaining, in the third and final deciding encounter.
A first T20I Home Series win for the West Indies in over four years. And which left the thousands of attending Sabina Park spectators dancing with unbridled joy!
Even further afield, the West Indies Women were also involved in their own T20 heroics. The Lady Maroons fashioned an incredible victory, against no less an opponent than the defending champions, New Zealand, in their opening match of the ongoing England-hosted 2026 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. They then achieved their second successive tournament victory, narrowly defeating Scotland by just seven runs in a relatively low-scoring affair. Wins should put them in very good standing to emerge as one of the top two teams in their Group to advance to semi-finals.
The West Indies Women will face Sri Lanka and hosts England in their remaining Group Stage matches. Any additional win from which will almost certainly guarantee semi-final qualification.
The week also witnessed the much-anticipated announcement by West Indies Head Coach/Chief Selector Daren Sammy of his chosen 15-member squad for the scheduled June 25-29 and July 03-07 two Tests home series against Sri Lanka. Both matches to be played at Antigua’s Sir Vivian Richards National Stadium.
Sammy’s chosen 15-member squad features no less than five front-line fast bowlers, including the veteran ageing Kemar Roach, as well as Justin Greaves as a medium paced all-rounder. A seamer predominance that has caused quite a few eyebrows to be raised across the region. Arguably not nearly as many, though as Sammy’s choices of Jommelli Warrican as the squad’s sole front line spinner and even more incredulously his continuation of Rolston Chase as skipper.
As has been previously, indisputably, outlined, Chase’s returns with both bat and ball have been sufficiently paltry as to no longer merit his inclusion in any Test team. Let alone as captain. Unless he miraculously experiences a most radical improvement in his performances, the two forthcoming Sri Lanka Tests must surely be his last as West Indies captain.
Sammy’s other Test squad choices were mostly not unexpected. Especially the recall of Joshua DaSilva as the squad’s wicket-keeper batter. Despite the somewhat debatable selections, West Indies fans and followers will be feverishly hoping for the impending Test matches’ most favourable outcomes that will be just as encouragingly welcomed as all the other aforementioned developments!