Cricket West Indies (CWI) has confirmed sweeping changes to its regional cricket calendar for 2026, citing severe financial constraints that will force the governing body to cut or restructure several tournaments.

The announcement was made on Wednesday by CWI Chief Executive Officer, Chris Dehring, during the board’s quarterly press conference in Antigua. Dehring admitted that the upcoming year would present “a very challenging financial year” as revenues are projected to fall sharply.

“…The year 2025-2026 is going to be a very challenging financial year for us,” Dehring said.

Among the major adjustments, the Under-17 tournament has been scrapped, while the women’s competitions will be merged. On the men’s side, both the Combined Campuses and Colleges and the West Indies Academy teams will no longer feature in regional tournaments.

Dehring explained that the dip in revenues stems largely from the ICC’s financial model, which offers little benefit to CWI when hosting tours involving Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and New Zealand.

“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 explained. “International broadcast rights for the television products that we produce help us to fund all the development programmes, all the tournaments that we host every year.

“When we have to host Sri Lanka, Pakistan and New Zealand, as much as we enjoy playing the cricket against them, hosting those teams come with a financial price. It’s a price we have to pay to keep our seat at the head table at the ICC and retain our Full Membership, so we have to host these tours; they are a part of the Future Tours programme that we agreed to.

“But 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 all the developmental tournaments. People don’t appreciate the number of events and tournaments that CWI hosts. We host over 33 events next year — tours, tournaments, overseas tours, domestic leagues, training camps — and that is slightly reduced because we’ve had to make some fairly significant changes to those tournaments and tours, simply because we’re not going to have the cash.”

Despite the cost-cutting measures, Dehring was quick to reassure that player fees and retainer contracts will remain untouched.

“So we are going to struggle financially next year but it is something we’re committed to do,” he said. “There are certain elements that we have absolutely kept sacrosanct — our players’ fees, our retainer program — those are things that we’ve said we cannot touch. We have to find the money to make sure our players are compensated and our players have an adequate retainer… but keeping most of our tournaments, we’ve had to do away with a couple… such as the Under-17 tournament… we simply can’t do it next year. But all in all next year what we’re calling is… pumping the brakes a little to go around this very sharp curve to ensure that we can then go back on the highway in 2026/27.”

Looking ahead, Dehring said CWI has devised a “four-pronged attack” to navigate its financial challenges. This includes continued lobbying with the ICC to restructure its financial model, re-engineering domestic tournaments, working more closely with CARICOM, and securing greater financial support from regional companies.