West Indies Women’s head coach
Courtney Walsh said the past
year was tough for his side, but
they had little time to put things right ahead
of the ICC Women’s Twenty20 World Cup,
starting on February 10 in South Africa.Walsh
said the team will use a forthcoming tri-series
against India and hosts South Africa to get
into gear for the tournament, but
there was a need for the team
to improve its batting significantly if
they are to have a chance of success.
Reflecting on the recent home series against
England Women in which the Windies
Women lost all three One-day International
and five Twenty20 Internationals, the former
Jamaica captain and West Indies fast bowler
said the senior players had failed to deliver.
“We know we’ve got some injured players
and some players would have retired, but at
the same time others would have been given
the opportunity,” Walsh said on the Mason
& Guest cricket radio talk show on VOB 92.9
FM. “I think a lot of the responsibility would
rest with the senior players.
“We didn’t put a lot of partnerships together
from a team perspective and that is something
we talked about in terms of getting someone
to bat deep into the innings, and we didn’t
have that at all, so that is one thing we have
to improve on.
“The top four or five—someone has to bat
deep into the innings for you to get the scores
you want to get, and we have been failing in
that department.
“Things have not been as well as we would
have liked, but having said that we’ve given
opportunities to some younger ones and
a couple of players have some more games
under their belts, so we are hoping with the
experience they would have gained from that
we can move forward.”
Walsh said the plan moving forward will be to
integrate as many of the players in the Windies
Women’s Under-19 side into the senior side
following the inaugural ICC Women’s T20
Youth World Cup, which also takes place in
South Africa, starting January 14 and features 16
teams.
“We have Under-19 women’s cricket, and once
you start playing Under-19 cricket, it will give us
some more potential players to look at,” he said.
“We will be monitoring the Under-19 World
Cup, and when it is finished, my recommendation
is to get those Under-19s into emerging camps
and start to build and go around the territories
and find more players.”
The senior West Indies Women, under the
leadership of Hayley Matthews, won only four
of the 18 ODIs and one of the 10 T20Is they
played this year.