There will be one new award up for grabs at the annual cricket awards ceremony, jointly put on by the West Indies Cricket Board, now Cricket West Indies (CWI), and the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA).

The WIPA awards, now in its 14th year and fifth edition jointly with the CWI, is set to recognise outstanding players’ achievements over the 2016/17 season at the Jamaica Pegasus on July 7.

In addition to the 14 award categories for players who have excelled in regional and international cricket, including the recognition of achievements by territorial teams will be the new CWI/WIPA Outstanding Foundation Award.

WIPA President and Chief Executive Officer Wavell Hinds explained that this award will be presented to any West Indian cricketer, regionally or internationally, who “does community service and gives back to their community in different ways”.

“We have a few of those guys already; there is the Chris Gayle Foundation, Marlon Samuels Foundation, Darren Ganga, Carlos Brathwaite, Samuel Badree, Darren Sammy and Brian Lara. So there are a few guys who have been doing some very good work in engaging the community and giving back in a very big way.

“So we think that is a very good thing for youngsters to follow, we think it’s a very good thing to reconnect cricket and the community and we want to acknowledge the persons that have been doing that so far. May the best contribution to date come out on top, but we still appreciate the others,” said Hinds, in his presentation at yesterday’s launch held at WIPA’s offices at Sabina Park.

With CWI President Whycliffe ‘Dave’ Cameron absent from the launch due to other commitments, Hinds and WIPA secretary Wayne Lewis both highlighted the importance of combining the entities for the regional awards function.

“We look forward to this awards to ensure that we recognise our members as well as our players and making sure that they are celebrated in a good way because we acknowledge the sacrifice and commitment that they put into it and the things that they do to make the West Indies proud,” Hinds, the former West Indies opening batsman, noted.

Meanwhile, with the West Indies set to host India for two games at Sabina Park over that same week, WIPA will be adding to the excitement to make it a memorable weekend for players and cricket-loving fans alike.

The regional side will oppose their Indian counterparts in the final ODI on July 6 and then again a few days later in a Twenty20 international on July 9.

The WIPA awards ceremony on the 7th and a Retired Players’ Foundation game on the 8th at Kensington Oval will serve as appetisers in a build-up to the T20 encounter.

The likes of Jimmy Adams, Sherwin Campbell, Mervin Dillon, Nixon McLean, and Rawl Lewis, among others, are set to feature in the Retired Players’ contest.

“This Retired Players’ Foundation is geared towards looking after the players who have contributed to West Indies cricket, but are now in their retirement stage. So we want to engage them and this foundation takes care of the players and it is connected to the CWI and WIPA.

“So that is a big event for us and we look forward to the support from not just the media, but a wider community of the Caribbean for this weekend of cricket and we want to make sure that it is meaningful and we want you to engage in a very significant way,” said Hinds.

All-rounders Roston Chase, ODI captain Jason Holder, wicketkeeper Shane Dorwich, and seamer Shannon Gabriel are nominated for West Indies Cricketer of the Year.

The women’s equivalent is headlined by Jamaica’s Stafanie Taylor, Deandra Dottin and Haley Matthews, as well as spin bowler Anisa Mohammed.

The guest speaker at the awards function will be Steve Wythe of ESPN.

“When we have collaboration with Cricket West Indies it shows that we are working well with CWI because we are both trying to achieve the same thing, which is to improve West Indies cricket,” said Lewis.

“I just want to make an appeal to corporate Jamaica if they are interested in attending the awards that its 10 seats to a table and that is US$2,500 and individually a person will pay US$250.

“So I just want to encourage everyone to come out and support this award and of course the game at Kensington, as well as the West Indies because the team really needs our support at this time,” he added.