Without knowledge of who will receive retainer contracts from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB) has named their 25 players to retain for the upcoming regional first class season.The TTCB has submitted the names to the WICB for franchise retainer contracts. The first list of ten cricketers was secured by the T&TCB and would not go into the draft from which five more will be added.
They are Adrian Barath, Evin Lewis, Jason Mohammed, Lendl Simmons, Steven Katwaroo, Nicholas Pooran, Imran Khan, Shannon Gabriel, Marlon Richards and Rayad Emrit.To this list will be added the players retained by the WICB. However, that list is yet to be released from the WICB and hence the TTCB used their knowledge of the situation to predict that the Bravo brothers Dwayne and Darren, Sunil Narine, West Indies captain Denesh Ramdin, Keiron Pollard and Ravi Rampaul will be given central retainers by the WICB.
If any of these players are not given central retainers by WICB or if they refuse to accept it, they will then play for T&T on a 'pay of play' basis. This means that they will be paid a match fee when selected for the national team. All players, including those retained, will be paid a match fee for each game in which they are selected to play.These players will not be available for any other country than that of their birth because they were not sent to the draft.
The second list of 15 cricketers will join a pool of 90 players (15 from each of the six territories affiliated to the WICB) for a draft from which each nation will select five to complete their list of 15 for retainer contracts.This includes list includes Akeal Hosein, Brian Charles, Yannic Ottley, Jeremy Solozano, Daniel St Clair, Derone Davis, Ricky Jaipaul, Kjorn Ottley, Jahron Alfred, Yannic Cariah, Kerwyn Sirju, Justin Guillen, Ranga Latchana, Vikash Mohan and Mark Deyal.
Five of the above players could also find themselves playing for T&T because they could be selected by the national selectors when the draft opens.CEO of the TTCB, Suruj Ragoonath, in an earlier interview, had indicated this country might go total local or at best go for just one player from outside this country.The regional first class season will begin in November and each country will play a total of ten matches.