West Indies cricket board to be renamed Cricket West Indies as they celebrate 91 years in the sport

Cricket West Indies (CWI), as it is now called, will begin its 91st year today, with a new name and website as part of a comprehensive rebranding programme. From this date onwards, the West Indies Cricket Board will be called Cricket West Indies and formally recognise all representative teams as the WINDIES.

CEO of the board Johnny Grave said, “Cricket West Indies better reflects how the organisation operates, as there are many different stakeholders who we work in partnership with, under the unifying aim of improving cricket at all levels within the region. We plan to work even more closely with them over the next few years and consultation will begin immediately as we develop a new strategic plan for 2018-2023.”

The WINDIES name has been associated with the representative teams within International cricket for long and this new brand will be printed on all the teams’ playing shirt. Also, the board has come up with a new website that will provide user-friendly information on match scores, team updates, videos and player information.

President Dave Cameron added:

“Whilst the Board of Directors has an important role, we feel that the new name is more inclusive and appropriate, as we want to recognise the valuable role that our players, territorial boards, staff, supporters, governments, coaches, match officials and volunteers, play in the organisation. For Cricket West Indies to operate effectively and efficiently we need all of our stakeholders to work in partnership and the name change is an important first step in our strategy.”

As of now, the West Indies cricket is in tatters and their ODI team is not part of the Champions Trophy, which features top eight sides of the world, as well. Bangladesh pipped them to the eighth spot in the rankings as once CT-winners, in 2004 in England where they defeated the hosts, failed to be a part of the mini World Cup.

This edition of the tourney is the eighth one, with the first edition played in Bangladesh in 1998 with the name of ICC Knockout tournament.While India and Australia have won the tournament twice each, West Indies, South Africa and New Zealand have won one each.

India are the defending champions in this edition and will look to win the tourney yet again.