Shai Hope

Winner of a slew of “Player of the Year” awards, Shai Hope is a cricketer from Barbados. He plays for the West Indies cricket team in international matches and is the team’s vice captain in limited over cricket. At age 21, he was asked to join the West Indies team after scoring 200 runs against the Windwards Islands on the last day of the 2014–15 Regional Four Day Competition at the Kensington Oval. In May 2015, he played his first match for the West Indies. At the annual Cricket West Indies Awards in June 2018, he was named Men’s Cricketer of the Year, Test Cricketer of the Year, and ODI Cricketer of the Year. He was named the ODI Player of the Year the following year.

Hope played his first Test match in May 2015, against England. He joined the West Indies team in August 2016 for their Test series against India. In the same year, Hope played in his first One Day International match against Sri Lanka in the second game of the tri-series. His first century came in his second ODI, which was against Zimbabwe on the same tour.

Hope’s first Test century came in the second Test against England in August 2017. In the second innings, when the West Indies needed 322 to win, Hope got his second hundred and led them to a 5-wicket victory. The win was the first time the West Indies beat England on the road since 2000. Hope’s two centuries in the game against England were the first time ever in first-class cricket that this had happened at Headingley Cricket Ground. In April 2018, he was named one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year. In May 2019, Hope scored a 170 against Ireland at Castle Avenue in Dublin.