The West Indies is a sporting confederation of over a dozen mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries and dependencies that formed the British West Indies.
Cricket is traditionally the main sport in the West Indies (though others sports such as football and basketball have challenged its dominance from around the 1990s onwards). The British West Indies hosted the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
The West Indies consists of Antigua and Barbuda, Antigua, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago and the United States Virgin Islands.
Cricket is also played in other Carribean territories such as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands who are associate members of the ICC whilst the Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Suriname and the Turks and Caicos Islands are affiliate members.
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Main article: West Indies Cricket Board |
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in the West Indies. It was originally formed in the early 1920s as the West Indies Cricket Board of Control (and is still sometimes referred by that name), but changed its name in 1996. The Board has its headquarters in St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda.
The WICB has been a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) since 1926 and is also a member of Americas Cricket Association. It operates the West Indies cricket team and West Indies A cricket team, organising Test tours and one-day internationals with other teams.
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See also: Carib Beer Cup, KFC Cup, and Stanford 20/20 |
The West Indies' two major domestic competitions are the Carib Beer Cup (First-class competition) and the KFC Cup (List A one-day competition) and more recently the Stanford 20/20 (domestic Twenty20 competition - mainly funded and organized by Sir Allen Stanford). Other domestic competitions include the TCL Under-19 West Indies Challenge (three-day first class competition), TCL Under-19 West Indies Challenge Limited Overs Series (one-day limited overs competition), CLICO West Indies Under-15 competition and the WIWCF Women's Senior Tournament. One prominent former competition (not originally organized by the WICB) was the Inter-Colonial Tournament.
In the case of the Carib Beer Cup and the KFC Cup the following first-class domestic teams participate:
For the TCL Under-19 West Indies Challenge (both the first class and limited overs competitions) it is the Under-19 squads for these teams which participate, while for the CLICO Under-15 West Indies tournament it is the Under-15 squads for these teams which pariticipate. In the 2004 TCL Under-19 Challenge the Under-19 Bermuda cricket team and an Under-19 combined Americas cricket team also took part.
In the WIWCF Senior Tournament and the Stanford 20/20 competition the separate components of the Leeward Islands and Windward Islands compete individually. Additionally for the Stanford 20/20 competition teams from outside the West Indies sporting confederation, but within the Caribbean, also compete including the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Cuba (which was barred from competing in 2008 by the U.S. embargo), the Turks and Caicos Islands (both competing in 2008) as well as the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico (announced for the 2009 edition of the Stanford 20/20).
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Main article: West Indian cricket team |
The West Indian cricket team, also known colloquially as The Windies or The West Indies, is a multi-national cricket team representing a sporting confederation of the West Indies.
The "Windies" is one of the ten elite international teams that play at the Test match cricket-level.