Some of the best young players in the West Indies will be on show when they take part on the Women’s Caribbean Premier League (WCPL). This is due to the emerging players programme which will see players under the age of 23 given opportunities in the three franchise teams – Barbados Royals, Guyana Amazon Warriors and Trinbago Knight Riders.
Graeme West, High-Performance Manager of Cricket West Indies (CWI), lauded the joint initiative between CWI and CPL and noted some of the players are poised to deliver excellent performances in the two-week tournament. The opening contest is on Thursday at Kensington Oval when home team Barbados Royals led by Hayley Matthews face Guyana Amazon Warriors, with Stafanie Taylor at the helm. First ball is at 3pm (2pm Jamaica).
West passionately emphasized:
“CPL gives players another opportunity to play competitively and to play good quality cricket. We’ve got some really outstanding overseas players in that tournament, so to rub shoulders with some of those players is a great opportunity for our young players. The expectations are that they’ve already been performing, so added pressure but good pressure to perform and contribute to their teams, will be exciting to watch.”
Some of the young players selected for the WCPL are Trishan Holder, Djenaba Joseph, Janneilia Glasgow, Ashmini Munisar, and Zaida James – who have recently represented the West Indies Rising Stars Under 19s and also the Senior West Indies Women’s team.
At the heart of this initiative lies the West Indies Women’s Academy, the foundation for nurturing emerging cricketing talent in the region. As the CPL unfolds, the focus will be on observing how these promising players implement the skills and knowledge they acquired through rigorous training at the Coolidge Cricket Ground.
West added:
The CPL provides the great opportunity to see how the players implement all they’ve learnt at the West Indies Women’s Academy and how they handle the pressure. We are looking at the players and their maturity and growth. We have seen some positive signs in the last camp in Antigua. We can see the improvements in their game sense and awareness. Their participation is a crucial part of the players’ development. I’m hopeful we see some of that in this tournament and in the coming months.”
Women’s CPL Match Schedule
31 August: Barbados Royals v Guyana Amazon Warriors (GAW) at Kensington Oval – 3pm
2 September: Barbados Royals v Trinidad Knight Riders (TKR) at Kensington Oval – 4pm
3: September: TKR v GAW at Kensington Oval – 4pm
5 September: TKR v GAW at Queen’s Park Oval – 3pm
6 September: TKR v Royals at Queen’s Park Oval – 3pm
9 September: GAW v TKR at Brian Lara Cricket Academy – 4pm
10 September: FINAL at Brian Lara Cricket Academy – 4pm
(Source: Cricket West Indies)
