WITH the GCB T20 version of the Inter-County set to start today at Malteenoes with defending Champions Berbice facing Essequibo from 1:30 pm Berbice Coach Winston Smith and Captain West Indies player Shamaine Campbell wants more cricket for females be played locally.

Speaking on the ‘Sean Devers sports Watch’ radio show last Tuesday night, Coach Smith lamented that not enough cricket is being played for females in Guyana.
“I think the inter-county format is too short and they are not exposing more of the junior players. They had the select X1 at all the levels and they should have had a select X1 in this tournament also.

A regional under-19 tournament is supposed to be starting shortly and there are no preparations for those players. If there was a select X1 in this this tournament coaches could have a look at them and start identifying who could be picked and the Coaches in the various counties can properly prepare for Guyana to be successful,” said Coach, who conducts coaching sessions at the Rosehall Town ground for young females on Saturdays.

Coach Smith feels that for Guyana to start dominating at the regional level the girls need to play more cricket and not only at the Inter-County level.

“It’s unfair to ask the girls to train and practice for a whole year and when they are finished you bring them to play just three matches and expect them to do well at Regional and International level” noted the level 3 Coach, who is the most successful inter county coach.

“You should have them play quarterly and, just like how you have u-13, u-15, and u-17 cricket played, there should be such programs for the girls also.
Because cricket is so expensive for these players, once they make an inter county team, they should be given contracts…even it is a small sum that could pay for little thing they to improve their game.

If you retain these players with contracts in each county then other players will want to emulate them. Give contracts to the none international players from each County…three, four of them…it will motive them to stay in the game longer and fuel their desire to want to play for Guyana and West indies” Coach Smith continued.

Coach Smith says that at the end of Saturday (the last day of the T20 tournament) those who don’t make the Guyana team will have to wait until next year to again.
“Even those who make Guyana but not West Indies where the players can get contracts to play in Women’s Franchise leagues, will have to wait for a whole year to play again. Nowhere is that done if you want to see development.

“You need to play the under-19 tournament quarterly. When I took the under-15 team to Jamaica, we played against the under-17 team and only Berbice reached 100 but because we were playing boys who were older than us here when got to Jamaica, they scored over 200 in every game because they were exposed to a higher level and they believed in themselves and their Coach,” informed Coach Smith.

Smith also feels that matches at the inter-county level should be played in each County since this will expose the players to different conditions, especially in female cricket which could inspire girls to want to be like those names to hear about on the news.

The 31-year-old Campbell feels if there were more matches in this tournament the selectors would have more opportunity to pick a stronger team since if a talented player had a bad game, they would another chance to be seem.

The West Indies wicket-keeper/batter also feels that maybe two-day cricket could be played to get the girls to bat longer and hold trial games after the inter-county and have longer camps.
“Our batting is usually our main problem and if the few senior international batters in the get out early we are bowled out for 23 and such scores” Campbell added.