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BRIDGETOWN, Barbados CMC – West Indies Women captain Merissa Aguilleira says she likes how her side is shaping up as the players prepare to make an assault on next year’s 50-over World Cup in India. And with the success of their male counterparts at the Twenty20 World Cup last month, Aguilleira says the women’s team were motivated to also challenge for a world title.
“We have developed quite rapidly as a team and credit must be given to the WICB for putting things in place for us as players and as a team,” she said recently during the ongoing training camp in Barbados.
“This camp is a perfect example of the commitment to the development of women’s cricket. We will be together for a month and we have already seen the benefits. We are hitting all areas in our game and we know that we can reach the next level. We believe that we are on the right track and we aim to continue.
“We want to be the best team in the world and we know we have the players capable of taking us there. The World Cup in India is the next big occasion. We saw what happened when the men won the World T20 in Sri Lanka and we want that feeling. We want to be world champions too, not just for us, but for the people of the Caribbean.”
West Indies Women played well to reach the semi-finals of the World T20 before going down by 28 runs to Australia.
And they had seemed en route to the final when they limited the Aussies to just 115 runs but in their turn at the crease, they were dismissed for a disappointing 87.
“I was disappointed that we did not reach the final of the World T20. It was a case of being so close and yet so far. But we didn’t let that get us down for too long, we bounced back quickly and we are here in camp to build towards the World Cup,” she said.
“At the previous World T20 in the Caribbean, we were second in our group. This time around in Sri Lanka we topped our group, so that was an improvement in itself. We beat New Zealand for the first time in T20 cricket and that was a plus for us.
“We fought as a team and that team spirit and fight will take us to India. There are good things to take out of our performance … we are planning for bigger things … we are looking forward to bigger things.”
West Indies Women will host South Africa in five One-Day Internationals and two T20s before heading to the World Cup which runs from January 31 to February 22 and will raise the curtain on the tournament in a day/night fixture against the hosts at the Wankhede Stadium.
“We have developed quite rapidly as a team and credit must be given to the WICB for putting things in place for us as players and as a team,” she said recently during the ongoing training camp in Barbados.
“This camp is a perfect example of the commitment to the development of women’s cricket. We will be together for a month and we have already seen the benefits. We are hitting all areas in our game and we know that we can reach the next level. We believe that we are on the right track and we aim to continue.
“We want to be the best team in the world and we know we have the players capable of taking us there. The World Cup in India is the next big occasion. We saw what happened when the men won the World T20 in Sri Lanka and we want that feeling. We want to be world champions too, not just for us, but for the people of the Caribbean.”
West Indies Women played well to reach the semi-finals of the World T20 before going down by 28 runs to Australia.
And they had seemed en route to the final when they limited the Aussies to just 115 runs but in their turn at the crease, they were dismissed for a disappointing 87.
“I was disappointed that we did not reach the final of the World T20. It was a case of being so close and yet so far. But we didn’t let that get us down for too long, we bounced back quickly and we are here in camp to build towards the World Cup,” she said.
“At the previous World T20 in the Caribbean, we were second in our group. This time around in Sri Lanka we topped our group, so that was an improvement in itself. We beat New Zealand for the first time in T20 cricket and that was a plus for us.
“We fought as a team and that team spirit and fight will take us to India. There are good things to take out of our performance … we are planning for bigger things … we are looking forward to bigger things.”
West Indies Women will host South Africa in five One-Day Internationals and two T20s before heading to the World Cup which runs from January 31 to February 22 and will raise the curtain on the tournament in a day/night fixture against the hosts at the Wankhede Stadium.
