Shemaine Campbelle, the diminutive wicketkeeper-batter, became the fourth West Indies Women’s player to achieve 100 One-Day International matches when she was selected in the starting XI against England Women at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium yesterday afternoon. She joins an elite group including Stafanie Taylor, Deandra Dottin and Anisa Mohammed who have all made over 100 appearances for the Maroon Warriors.
Campbelle has been a stalwart of the Maroon Warriors batting lineup over the 13 years she has been a part of the squad. She not only stands behind the stumps or bats for the West Indies Women, but she also has 21 ODI wickets and 34 T20I wickets from 38 and 44 matches respectively. This gives her a unique place in cricket history as the only player to ever score over 1000 runs, take over 50 wickets and have over 50 dismissals.
She credits her discipline and fitness as the reasons why she has had such a long career and is going to savour this 100thODI.
“It’s a good feeling playing 100 ODIs for West Indies. I’m coming back from injury, and I’ve been stuck on 99 matches for a long time, so now it’s time for me to cross that… I never thought I would play 100 matches because that is a lot of cricket, so being part of the team for so long is great achievement for myself and the team.”
Campbelle added:“Playing this type of cricket (ODI) is not easy so that’s where my fitness and discipline come in. The fitness helps me with developing my skills and keeps me going. Discipline helps me to go step by step in my confidence and belief in myself from when I started until now and there’s a lot more time for me to continue playing.”
“Mini” as she’s fondly called by her teammates draws inspiration from the maiden ODI century she scored against Sri Lanka in Dambulla in 2013 and a half-century against the same opponents in Barbados in 2012. Campbelle said, “Every time I come out to play 50-over cricket, I try to visualize those performances and draw inspiration from them, to perform against my present opponents.”(Cricket West Indies0
