ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Cricket West Indies (CWI) is bracing for a financially difficult 2026, prompting significant restructuring of its regional competitions.
Chief Executive Officer Chris Dehring and Director of Cricket Miles Bascombe admitted on Wednesday that with revenues projected to dip sharply, the governing body has been left with little choice but to scale back.
Among the casualties are the Under-17 tournament, which has been scrapped altogether, and the merger of the women’s domestic formats into a single competition. On the men’s side, both the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) and the West Indies Academy will be removed from next year’s roster.
Tours without returns
Dehring explained that the squeeze comes even as West Indies is scheduled to host over 33 events in 2026, including home series against Sri Lanka, New Zealand, and Pakistan. The challenge lies in the International Cricket Council’s financial model, which offers little return from hosting these particular tours.
“When we host countries like India or England, we are able to hold our head above water because those tours tend to pay for themselves,” Dehring noted. “International broadcast rights for those series help us fund development programs and all the tournaments we stage annually. But when we host Sri Lanka, Pakistan and New Zealand… as much as we enjoy the cricket, hosting those teams comes with a financial price. It’s a price we have to pay to keep our seat at the ICC table and retain our Full Membership.”
The CEO stressed that the production costs alone for those tours outweigh any potential earnings. “We’re not going to be able to recoup even the television production costs of those tours, much less make a profit to pay for developmental tournaments,” he said.
A four-pronged recovery plan
Despite the cuts, Dehring underscored that CWI is not without strategy. The board has designed what he called a “four-pronged” plan to navigate the crisis: lobbying the ICC for a fairer distribution model, reengineering domestic tournaments, working more closely with CARICOM, and securing greater corporate investment across the Caribbean.
“We have to take an honest look at ourselves and understand that we’re not going to get out of where we are without a long-term vision, a long-term plan, and an execution of those plans based on the resources we have,” Dehring insisted. “The year 2025–2026 is going to be a very challenging financial year for us.”
Reshaping domestic cricket
Bascombe, meanwhile, confirmed that several tournaments would be streamlined. “There will be a reduction in the number of matches across competitions,” he explained. For the women, the ODI and T20 formats will be combined into one event. On the men’s side, the exclusion of the CCC and the West Indies Academy reflects the effort to reduce costs.
At the youth level, the Under-17 competition will be discontinued, but Bascombe emphasized that an expanded Under-19 tournament — spanning both red-ball and white-ball cricket — will provide players with broader exposure.
Opportunities still on the table
Bascombe stressed that despite the painful adjustments, opportunities remain for players to prove themselves.
“The changes to these tournaments, though forced, we have tried to ensure that there is enough cricket that we can have a good account of our player pool,” he said. “Players will still have sufficient time and opportunity to showcase their ability and make themselves eligible for selection to West Indies teams.”
The balancing act
For West Indies cricket, 2026 looms as a year of delicate balancing — honoring ICC obligations, managing shrinking finances, and preserving enough competitive cricket to sustain the player pipeline. The cutbacks reflect both the harsh financial realities of the modern game and the pressing need for structural reform at the global level.
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