West Indies women to open against Papua New Guinea

THE West Indies Women will open their ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup qualifying campaign on November 21 against Papua New Guinea at the Sunrise Cricket Club in Harare, Zimbabwe in the first of their four Group A fixtures.

The ICC revealed the fixtures for the two-week qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe, where West Indies Women will play three other Group A opponents – Sri Lanka, Ireland and the Netherlands – in the first phase of the Qualifier on November 23, 27 and 29 respectively.

West Indies will initially focus on winning their Group A matches to be one of the top three teams to reach the Super6 phase of the tournament from December 1 to 5.

The Super6 pits the top three teams from Group A against the top three teams from Group B – consisting of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Zimbabwe and the USA.

Group points will carry over into the Super6 phase with the six teams vying to finish in the top three to qualify for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand from March 4 to April 3.

Head coach Courtney Walsh emphasised the importance of winning in both the group stage and Super6: “It is important that we try to win all our group stage matches and also in the Super6 as only three teams have the chance to qualify.

“If we do this, we are guaranteed one of the three spots up for grabs. I know it’s going to be very testing mentally and physically for the team as the games are so close to each other but we knew that beforehand and we’ve been preparing as such. I believe we have the right team combination to win as many as we can and qualify for New Zealand 2022.”

The top three qualifiers, as well as the fourth- and fifth-placed teams in the Super6 phase, will also secure places in the next ICC Women’s Championship, which is expanding to feature ten teams and will determine automatic qualifiers for the next edition of the ICC Women’s World Cup.

The West Indies Women are currently in Pakistan for a three-match ODI series as part of their final preparations for the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier. The West Indies Women will depart Pakistan on November 15 for Zimbabwe.

All ICC Women’s World Cup matches will start at 09:30hrs local time (15:30hrs Eastern Caribbean/14:30hrs Jamaica).

FULL SQUAD: Stafanie Taylor (captain), Anisa Mohammed (vice-captain), Aaliyah Alleyne, Shemaine Campbelle, Shamilia Connell, Deandra Dottin, Sheneta Grimmond, Chinelle Henry, Qiana Joseph, Kycia Knight, Kyshona Knight, Hayley Matthews, Chedean Nation, Shakera Selman, Rashada Williams.

Travelling Reserves: Cherry Ann Fraser, Shabika Gajnabi, Karishma Ramharack