West Indies legend Sir Clive Lloyd has issued the call for the next president of Cricket West Indies to put his attention towards female cricket.
During a segment on the Mason and Guest radio show, the former West Indies skipper compared Australia’s cricket structure for women and recommended something similar be done within the context of the Caribbean Islands.
He said, “One thing that I would like to see is more involvement where the women are concerned, and if you have ever seen the Australian system they have about 2000 women playing cricket. I am saying we should be in the same situation. Most of our islands should be involved, women should have an equal part to play.”
With the pool full of talent but lacking experience, Lloyd reckoned that at this stage there should be some discussion with explosive all-rounder, Deandra Dottin on potentially coming back to the fore in West Indies colours.
“One of the thing I should ask is for this lady Dottin, I think she is one of the finest players we’ve produced and it would be nice to know or I want to know if anybody, when she decided to retire, did anyone have a word with her and try to get some sponsorship and encourage her to continue playing,” Lloyd said.
He added, “if she had played in the world cup the other day instead of making 140, we’d gotten to 160 or more and probably gotten another of those games we lost and we would have qualified and I think we would have had a much better team, an all-round team, she can bowl, she is a terrific fielder and I don’t think we have enough women playing and can afford to lose her.”
President-hopeful and current vice-president of Cricket West Indies, Dr. Kishore Shallow agreed with Sir Lloyd and related that discussions had initially been conducted between the body and the player and should be reconvened.
“Sir Clive is absolutely right, Deandra is a massive loss to West Indies Cricket. I think most of us were surprised when she announced her retirement from international cricket, I would say that a conversation should be had because at this point I understand fully well because there were conversations with her, there were many attempts to ask her to continue to play the game or atleast take a break and reconsider but I don’t think it is too late to reconvene or resume the conversation,” Shallow said.
Shallow highlighted, “I’ve seen the young ladies play in the last World Cup, there is tremendous potential there, but nothing beats experience and if Deandra is back in the team, I think they would welcome her, I am sure Hayley Matthews being able to focus on her batting we will get a bit more from her like we have seen from the couple matches she has played in India so far.”
