Cricket West Indies (CWI) has named Bob Carter as its new Batting Consultant on an initial one-year contract, with the appointment taking effect from September 1, 2026. Carter will work across all three tiers of the programme, covering the senior men’s and women’s sides as well as age-group cricket.
Carter’s coaching career spans more than three decades at the elite level. He spent 21 years within the New Zealand Cricket high-performance structure, serving as High-Performance Coach from 2012 until he stepped away from that role in August 2025. Within that period, he led the New Zealand Women’s team as head coach between 2019 and 2022. Before his time in New Zealand, Carter held the position of Director of Cricket at Northamptonshire County Cricket Club in England.
“West Indies cricket has a proud tradition of producing outstanding batsmen, and my job is to help build the base to produce future generations of world-class players,” Bob Carter said in a statement published by CWI.
He also spoke to his broader philosophy.
“My focus has always been on supporting players and coaches to reach their full potential, and I am looking forward to working alongside the regional and high-performance coaches to help achieve that.”
At CWI, his remit centres on delivering specialist batting guidance to both established and developing players, while also working to sharpen the batting programme design skills of coaches already embedded in the regional and high-performance setups. CWI Director of Cricket Miles Bascombe highlighted the volume of cricket ahead, noting that West Indies teams are set to compete in at least six global events over the next 24 to 30 months.
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What will Carter’s role involve across CWI’s programmes?
Carter’s first task in the role is a regional tour scheduled for later in September 2026, during which he will visit all six first-class territories: Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Leeward Islands and Windward Islands. The tour gives him an early opportunity to assess batting talent and coaching capacity across the full breadth of West Indies domestic cricket.
The strategic timing of Carter’s arrival is tied directly to West Indies’ international calendar. The men’s side face the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier in February and March 2027, making the consolidation of batting depth across the squad a pressing concern for the board.
