FORMER West Indies women’s captain Merissa Aguilleira believes players must take personal responsibility if the Caribbean women are to keep pace with the rest of the world.

Aguilleira, who captained the West Indies in both Twenty20 and One Day Internationals between 2009 and 2015 retired from the sport in April 2019.

Since then she has done commentary on several Windies women’s matches, taken over as Technical Director of the Trinidad & Tobago Women’s team while giving birth to her first child, Zahdia Zahara-Meri Fraser on March 30.

The former wicket-keeper/batter who’s captaincy stint included three trips to the ICC World T20 semi-finals and the final of the 2013 50-over World Cup, believes that some players’ passion for the game has been waning since their 2016 World T20 triumph.

“We cannot continue to remain stagnant,” she said while speaking to Donald Oliver and Ricardo Chambers on the Commentators podcast.

She made reference to the team’s 5-nil home series defeat by India in November ahead of this year’s T20 World Cup in Australia where they failed to get beyond the first round.

“Somehow the drive, the passion is not there and that’s a huge cause for concern. We as West Indies players love to express ourselves, not just play cricket but have fun playing cricket, so when you look at the players and you realize they are not having fun, you realize that the passion is not there.”

The 34-year-old also opened up about her feelings after losing the captaincy in 2015 and about the sacking of long-time coach Sherwin Campbell.