The historic, first-ever, International Cricket Council (ICC) Women’s Under-19 T20 World Cup is scheduled to run early next year in South Africa from the 14th to the 29th of January. The tournament has a total of 16 teams of which 12 gained direct qualifications, while the remaining 4 earned a spot following a qualifier.
The 12 teams in the directly qualified bracket see Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa (hosts), Sri Lanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe and the United States in the mix. The 4 nations who’ve joined the 12 are United Arab Emirates (UAE) from the 6-team Asia qualifier, Indonesia from the bilateral East Asia Pacific (EAP) qualifier, Scotland from the bilateral Europe qualifier and Rwanda from the 9-team, Africa qualifier.
Cricket West Indies (CWI) in their lead-up to the mega ICC event have announced a 23-player squad that’ll undergo a training camp that’ll be followed by a few trial matches in Trinidad early next month.
U19 West Indies Women’s Squad:
Asabi Callender, Kanikaa Cassar, Jahzara Claxton, Naijanni Cumberbatch, Destiny Edward, Earnisha Fontaine, Jannillea Glasgow, Realeanna Grimmon, Trishan Holder, Zaida James, Djenaba Joseph, Maria La Foucade, Namiah Marcellin, KD Jazz Mitchell, Ashmini Munisar, Niveena Ramnauth, Cyanna Retemiah, Selena Ross, Shalini Samaroo, Shunelle Sawh, Lena Scott, Abini St Jean, Kate Wilmott.
The bunch of 23 players will participate in a couple of trial matches on the 1st of November and then a final and third trial match on the 3rd of November. From the 4th to the 6th of November, the bunch will have skills and fitness sessions under the guidance of the head coach, Steve Liburd.
Jimmy Adams, CWI’s Director of Cricket said: “The upcoming training camp in Trinidad for our Women’s U19 squad will be an important component of their preparation for their inaugural tour of India which immediately follows, and also for the ICC Women’s Under-19 T20 World Cup which takes place in South Africa in January.
“During the eight-day camp, the squad will continue its ongoing program of technical, tactical, physical and mental preparation. The entire experience of the camp, and subsequent tour to India, will play a big role in the development of our next generation of international female cricketers who have had limited experience of playing outside the region before now.”
The weeklong preparation will come in very handy for the West Indies when they travel to India for their scheduled Quadrangular series featuring India A, India B and Sri Lanka. In addition, there’s also a Tri-Series planned featuring U-19 sides from West Indies, New Zealand and India who’ll field in two; India A and India B teams alternatively.
The inaugural edition of the U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup will see 41 matches played across 15 days at Benoni and Potchefstroom in South Africa early next year. The 16 participating teams have been split into 4 groups which will see the top 3 teams from each group advance to the Super Six League stage, where teams from group A will play against group D and group B will compete against group C.
West Indies placed in Group C will play Ireland in their opener on the 15th of January. They then play Indonesia and New Zealand on the 17th and 19th of January respectively.
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