By Naz Yacoob, www.guardian.co.tt

Members of the West Indies cricket team, still basking in the glory of their thrilling two-wicket win against England in the ICC Champions Trophy final, are now expected to cash in on a US$630,000 (approximately TT$4 million) bonus.

Each player could pocket up US$45,000 ($283,000) in bonus money courtesy the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the current sponsors, LNM Group.

This was revealed by a source close to the WICB yesterday.

The bonus money does not represent the players’ individual contractual agreement money with the WICB.

The 14 players will share the jackpot, which was promised to them if they brought the coveted ICC Cup to the Caribbean for the first time in the tournament’s six-year history.

The managing staff, which is made up of Tony Howard (manager) and Gus Logie (coach), together with Ronald Rogers (physio), and Andrew Simpson (trainer), were not guaranteed a bonus.

The regional cricketers also pocketed a cool US$525,000 ($3.3 million) after the victory against England on Saturday.

The ICC had offered US$50,000 ($314,000) for each victory in a group match. The regional team collected US$100,000 ($629,000) after they defeated Bangladesh and South Africa in the group qualifiers.

They then picked up a further US$125,000 ($78,625) for their semi-final victory against Pakistan at the Rose Bowl, and another US$300,000 ($1.9 million) for winning the final.

All of the winnings are thrown into a pot and divided among the players.

When Windies skipper Brian Lara lifted the 18-inch prize—a sterling silver trophy made of a silver gilt cricket ball engraved with a world map—the team was already guaranteed the automatic ICC prize money.

However, the LNM Group had committed to giving the team “an incentive bonus linked to the actual winning performance of the team progressively through the competition” before they headed out to England.

This was not quantified by WICB president Teddy Griffith at the time of the announcement of the sponsorship, but he said the bonus was one of three streams of earnings available to the players during the ICC series.

The India-based LNM Group is the second largest steel producer in the world and has operations in Trinidad and 14 other countries.

Griffith said at the signing of the sponsorship deal last month that the WICB was satisfied the team had been afforded every financial incentive to perform at the top of its capability during the ICC Champions Trophy.

Apart from Lara, the other members of the squad included Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo, Ricardo Powell, Courtney Browne, Ian Bradshaw, Corey Collymore, Ryan Hinds, Mervyn Dillon Sylvester Joseph and Darren Sammy.

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