–Windies ladies return to the Test arena in March for the first time since 2006
WITH the Women’s T20 Blaze and Super50 set to commence in St Vincent on January 13, Cricket West Indies (CWI) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Chris Dehring spoke about the developmental plans for female cricket in the region.
Speaking last Tuesday on the ‘Sean Devers Sports Watch’ on Kaieteur Radio, Dehring identified the plans in place for preparations for West Indies Women’s return to Test cricket in March for the first time since 2006, when Stephanie Power led the side against Pakistan.
The West Indies Women are scheduled to face Australia in March before travelling to South Africa in April, as the regional team makes a return to red-ball cricket for the first time in 20 years. None of the present players has played international red-ball cricket.
According to Dehring, all systems are in place in St Vincent for a successful tournament featuring the host Windward Islands, Leeward Islands, Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The tournament has been reduced from five to three rounds due to financial reasons, with each round in the T20 Blaze being played at the Arnos Vale Playing Field in Kingston. The first match will be played in the morning, the second from 2 pm, while the third will be played under lights.
The 50-over format will be contested from January 27-31, with matches scheduled for the Park Hill Playing Field in Colonarie, the Cumberland Playing Field in Cumberland and the Sion Hill Playing Field in Sion Hill.
“The U-19 World Cup, in Namibia and Zimbabwe, will be played at the same time as the Women’s CG United Super50.
West Indies heads to the UAE, where they face Afghanistan in a 3-match T20 series (Jan 19-22), before a similar series in South Africa (Jan 27-31).
West Indies will play six T20Is before the ICC T20 World Cup bowls off on February 7.
So there is a lot of cricket during the first two months of this year,” informed Dehring.
Speaking on the women’s return to Test, Dehring said the fact that none of the players have played red-ball cricket is not the ideal situation.
“These are some very talented ladies…they are also very experienced…so we are hoping that they can translate that white-ball experience to the red-ball.
They have been involved in numerous training camps here in Antigua at the High-Performance Centre. We had some good seasons as the Academy Males played with the ladies to get them accustomed to quicker bowling and different types of bowlers.
It’s been quite an interesting experiment to try to accommodate and translate what they know in white-ball cricket to the red-ball format as part of their preparation.
I think they are looking forward to testing themselves. So you can’t want for a better attitude from these ladies. They are dying to show what they can do at the Test level,” continued the eighth CEO of the CWI.
It was agreed that a lot more has to be done for the development of women’s cricket by the regional boards.
It was noted that the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) organised a women’s inter-county and, for the first time, included a hinterland team. A player from that team was selected for the Guyana team.
On the question of how possible it is for CWI install a subcommittee on women’s cricket in every territory.
“I want to address that from a more holistic perspective. One of the challenges with the Leeward and the Windward Islands is that they are comprised of several Islands and don’t get exposed…Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago don’t have this excuse,” explained Dehring.
“As Individual countries, your cricket infrastructure in terms of how you are developing your ladies and men’s teams don’t necessarily get exposed and doesn’t get the National fervor or national exposure. The people are not concerned or raising issues and challenging the local associations and governments to rally behind a cause.
I don’t think people appreciate what is taking place in this Hemisphere as it relates to individual countries participating in tournaments like the Bolivia Games, which we participated in Peru.
We are going to have the Pan Am Games very shortly, and later this year, we will most likely have the Pan Am qualifiers in the Caribbean, where individual countries will have to participate to qualify,” disclosed Dehring.
Dehring explained that “Countries with Olympic affiliation can participate (both male and female). Countries like St. Vincent will have to compete with St. Lucia, while Barbados clashes with St Kitts to qualify for the Pan Am Games. And that is only the precursor for the bigger one …the Olympics.
The prestige of winning the regional tournament is not as great as, for instance, that of yesteryear when winning the Shell Shield was a major event. I guess, because of the growth of international cricket nowadays and the West Indies being our international team, this is not so.
When Individual countries participate in and win regional tournaments, you don’t necessarily get the national support and outpouring, the political ambition, and so on.
Jamaica winning the Shell Caribbean Cup is nothing compared to Jamaica or Trinidad reaching the FIFA World Cup.
When individual countries have the opportunity to showcase their talent on the world stage, we are hoping that this will help their developmental drive and expose those countries. We know Caribbean pride and the other countries will be motivated to do the same.
You must have a shiny star… a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, not only for the Associations, but for the players who would want to travel the world and be excited to be in somewhere new.
In Peru, Jamaica won the ladies and Barbados won the Men’s. But it was more than that; it was exposure to a whole new world, seeing South America as a new world to conquer as a cricketing nation. That is going help in the coming years.
So don’t think of it in today’s realm but think of it in the next 10, 15, 20 years.
If you have a regular cadence of qualification for South American, Pan Am and Olympic Games, and that should inspire Nations, Government and Cricketers to want to be a part of this,” posited the Jamaican who founded Sports Max.
Dehring said he has had fruitful talks with Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali, Sports Minister Charles Ramson and Minister in the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport Steven Jacobs.
I am very impressed with President Ali’s knowledge of cricket globally.
