St John's (Antigua), May 6 (IANS): Cricket West Indies (CWI) has increased the number of West Indies women players who will get retainer contracts for the 2021-2022 season to 18.

This is an increase of three retainer contracts compared to the 2020-21 season with contracts offered for the first time to developing young players Kaysia Schultz and Qiana Joseph. The three players will join the 15 retained players from the 2020-2021 season, including captain Stafanie Taylor, all-rounder Deandra Dottin and the leading wicket-taker in T20 Internationals Anisa Mohammed.

CWI's lead selector for women's and girls cricket, Ann Browne-John said, "The last contract period did not see many international matches as we only played five T20I matches against England. Despite this, the contracted players were able to keep themselves fit and match ready. It was therefore the fairest decision to return all fifteen (15) to contract."

The West Indies women cricketers are currently in Antigua for their second high-performance camp of the year under newly appointed Head Coach Courtney Walsh.