BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC– New Chief Executive Officer of the WICB, Michael Muirhead, says he is delighted with the strides being made by the West Indies women’s cricket team.
Muirhead has been meeting with the players at the Sagicor High Performance Centre in Barbados preparing to face South Africa in a seven-match series in January.
Under the captaincy of Merissa Aguilleira and coaching of Sherwin Campbell, the West Indies reached the semi-finals of the ICC World T20 on two consecutive occasions.
“Women’s cricket is growing across the West Indies and across the world, and at the WICB we are delighted with the progress being made by the West Indies team in such a short period of time” said Muirhead during his first meeting with the players.
“We have a wonderful group of players here and they are superb ambassadors for West Indies cricket and regional cricket. People see them as future world-beaters and look forward to seeing them play”
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Several Windies players are ranked among the best in the world including Stafanie Taylor the Number one allrounder who won the prestigious ICC Women’s Player of the Year award last year.
Deandra Dottin holds the world record for the fastest century in a T20 International by men or women, while allrounder Shanel Daley and off-spinner Anisa Mohammed are ranked in the Top 10.
“The WICB is in the forefront in offering Central Retainer Contracts to women’s cricketers” Muirhead told the players.
“We are looking at ways to offer even more support to the players, who have done us proud. We see this as a truly worthwhile investment.”
The West Indies women’s squad will be encamped at the Sagicor High Performance Centre until December 15.
They will face South Africa in five One-Day Internationals and two T20 Internationals.
The full match schedule will be announced shortly.
“Obviously the women’s game is not as widespread as the men’s game” said Muirhead. “but we are hoping that this group of excellent players we have here will continue to demonstrate improvement and help to encourage more players to participate in the game”.