 Yeah, we're continuing with Cricket here on the Sports Mac Zone on this Friday, Cricket Weston is CWI and the Weston is players association WIPA signed a new memorandum of understanding inside the Sports Mac studios in Kingston, Jamaica on Thursday evening. The major provisions include improved prize money and match fees at the regional and international levels including for women cricketers to achieve parity with the men by October 2027. Issues concerning no objection certificates for players and the potential both CWI and franchises to award multi-year contracts. Cricket Weston as president Dr Kishore Shallow has embraced the partnership that he believes will enhance the game and reward excellence. Cricket is undeniable and this is not blindfold optimism by any means and today I present to you some of the reasons why I share that sentiment which has been echoed by many across the region. Over the last few months we have been engaged at Cricket Weston with negotiations with WIPA, Weston is players association to chart the course for a more inclusive and result-oriented approach in a memorandum of understanding. I can report that we conclude these negotiations no different that we started months ago with the best interest of cricket at heart and so I'm delighted to share with you five of these and later on you will hear from President Wave and Heinz who would elaborate on some of these. One enhanced team price money and individual player rewards potential for multi-year retainers contract. Increase men's match fees retention policy for overseas domestic tournaments and of course some city best for last equality for women's cricketers in our region. These provisions underscore commitment to creating an environment where players strived and Weston East Creek continues to shine on the global stage. I'm quite happy to say that we still not we do not conclude here as Cricket Weston East and WIPA but we will continue to work effortlessly to update the following framework fitness and conditioning selection policy and NSEs as we embark on this transformative journey for Cricket Weston East. Yes and the Weston East players association president Wave and Heinz who played 45 tests and 119 one-day internationals for the Weston is stretch the stress the inclusive nature of the process that led to the final document. Here of our players are important the rights and benefits of our players are important and certainly we did not come to an agreement without the involvement of our esteemed players. We have a player advisory committee led and chaired by Barbeid former Barbeidist captain or maybe still captain of the Barbeidist team Ms. Shakira Selman who is also a director of the Weston Displays Association want to thank her and our team for their contributions. Captain Hailey Matthews made her contribution in a very significant way and so did Captain Ravman Powell. So we had an all-inclusive approach where we had members from the AGM the last and our general meeting in Antigua who have nominated their respective supporting groups from the player group to join us at a negotiation table. We're looking forward to this there are different increases in the different bands which most players are likely here and we are also very grateful that in what we're doing we're also about gender equality and gender equity and as such we have managed to craft an agreement that will see between 2024 to 2027 where our women cricketers will be on par with the men in terms of their the payment so it is indeed a great time for the Weston Displays Association it is a good time for Weston this cricket and we also look forward to making sure that from the regional level up we're doing so to go with that for regional women we are looking to have at least six women contracted as professionals at a regional level and we look to to grow those numbers in a very incremental as we get to the end of the contract at the MOU in 2027 so yeah all that happening live in the Sportsmax Studios on Thursday evening the CWIC CEO Johnny Grave spoke about the huge rewards for individuals and teams. Yeah I think all the sort of the headlines from this deal are remarkable they are historic I think we've we've got over the period of the next four years a framework to pay you know upwards of 2.5 million US dollars to our international players in prize money and a similar amount for the for the regional players as well so there's a real focus that we put on this in terms of rewarding performances we want to have a structure where the best players who perform individually and collectively benefit the most and so the move towards increased prize money the move to reward players who get into the starting 11 rather than just sort of coast in squads has all been part of a strategic move to make the system tougher reward performances and get a real focus on winning. Yeah so it was a great evening in the Sportsmax Studios on on Thursday some technical issues prevented us from having a live show with it but great to have these decision makers in our studios yesterday talking about some important projects. Yeah and I think it's a really positive move it's a good way forward especially for the men and women cricketers for me you know because Krishna is a part of the Windy's women set up I'm always looking forward to see what's happening with the woman you know I'm always championing to ensure that the ladies get the same opportunities as the men and I'm always very vocal about that like it's no secret so yesterday to see the different advancements that will be taking place I know the ladies are very very happy because I had a conversation with my sister about it and I was like she was breaking it down to me as to what exactly would the benefits be for them and they're very happy you know they feel as if finally they're getting to some sort of equality and I think it's a good feeling I know Cricket West Indies they are working to ensure that in time the ladies will be getting equal payment just like the men so it's going to take some time but I know the ladies are very satisfied and they're looking forward to these advancements. Yeah as when Lewis the Honorary Secretary of the West Indies Players Association pointed out they had robust discussions with Cricket West Indies so there was a certain level of unity that we saw yesterday when all the gentlemen were here but as Wayne Lewis sort of pointed out or as Wayne Lewis pointed out they had some serious discussions they did not always agree on everything of course which you would expect at the negotiating table having said that I'm happy to hear Mariah say that the women Cricketers are quite happy with the provisions here in the document I hope as well that the male players for the most part will be pleased as well with what has come out of this MOU there are a few of the things that really strike me Lance and Mariah one of them and I put the question to waiver Heinz is the retainer contract so all retainers will be on hold once that NOC is issued for an overseas domestic franchise tournament I try to get further details or specifics or give specific scenarios Mr. Heinz kind of stepped away from that he didn't want to go into that which I can understand but that is that is quite interesting because now for the first time a player who is contracted to Cricket West Indies could still potentially request and get a no objection certificate but what would happen in a situation like that is that they would not be paid by Cricket West Indies in that period so that for me is an interesting development and I just want to add before we wrap of course there's room for improvement but for me where the ladies are concerned and I'm just speaking in relation to that aspect of the MOU it's a step in the right direction because we heard from them saying you know the minimum fee that the ladies would receive when they now started to play cricket for me it's a big step in the right direction of course there's always room for improvement and with time I'm hoping that whichever cricket West Indies body um takes the place of this one right now in years to come they can have something substantial to build on and that's so important yeah and I would just like to emphasize though that we want to have a robust West Indies players association because the fallout from the India boycott in 2014 had triggered a departure of a lot of the international cricketers from the West Indies players association and over time we would like to get from Messers, Lewis and Heinz the the percentage and the volume of current international players who are actually a part of Weeper because we did say we did see a decade ago where a lot of the international players had had left Weeper and Weeper would not have been representing a huge chunk a lot of the senior players senior players yeah so I'm hoping that in the future we will be seeing the players embracing Weeper and its relationship with cricket West Indies so there can be harmony going forward as we try to rebuild West Indies cricket we go to break still more to come on the sports max on back in a moment