West Indies captain Hayley Matthews has made it clear that she has no plans to leave international cricket and says playing for the West Indies will always remain her biggest priority, even with the growing number of franchise tournaments around the world.
The West Indies’ ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 campaign came to an end after an eight-wicket defeat to Australia in the first semi-final at The Oval, London, on Tuesday, June 30, 2026. The loss ended their hopes of winning a second Women’s T20 World Cup title after their famous triumph in 2016.
Although the team fell short of reaching the final, Matthews remained positive about the future of West Indies cricket. Speaking after the match, she made it clear that she still wants to continue leading and representing her country.
“I want to still play for West Indies, there’s no doubt about that,” she told the media. “I always feel like West Indies has given me the opportunity to represent myself, to be a part of franchise cricket. And it might be the most stressful thing and probably one of the harder jobs around, but it’s where the passion comes from.
“I certainly feel personally that I have a real opportunity to not only represent myself but to make a difference. I’ve seen so many young girls in the Caribbean already probably want to play cricket or take up cricket because of me and knowing that I have that power and I guess that influence in a country and in a region where women’s cricket and women’s sports on a whole probably isn’t represented massively, hopefully if I could just inspire a few young ladies or a few more young ladies to take up the game.”
Matthews also spoke about the future of some of the team’s most experienced players. She believes senior stars like Stafanie Taylor and Deandra Dottin still have the desire to keep playing and helping the team.
“I haven’t necessarily heard any of (Stafanie or Deandra) talking about retirement yet, thankfully,” Matthews continued. “I think there’s still a lot of passion from them to play. I think what’s most important for them is just a healthy team environment, and I think right now the passion that we have within the group has driven a lot of them.
“I think the fresh faces that we have within the young girls and the way that they’ve come into the team and have exhibited the want to learn definitely makes them feel like they can play a massive role, like it has made me. And hopefully that combination of the young new players alongside Stef and Deandra and Afy (Fletcher) can keep them driven to understand that their role is so much bigger than just going out and batting and bowling as well.”
The West Indies reached the semi-finals after group-stage wins over New Zealand, Scotland and Sri Lanka. They also suffered defeats against England and Ireland but still did enough to qualify for the last four before losing to an unbeaten Australian side.
Looking back at the tournament, Matthews felt the team did not get enough match-winning performances from different players at important moments.
“For the entire tournament, I feel that we haven’t had too many individual standout performances. I think we had Shemaine (Campbelle) in that first game alongside Aaliyah (Alleyne). We had Chinelle (Henry) score 50 in that match against England. But I think when we look overall as a group, we haven’t had enough players really put their hands up and take control of a game.
“And in T20 cricket, you always need someone stepping up and putting down good performances. And I think that’s probably what we lack, not only today but the entire tournament.”
Even though the World Cup ended in disappointment, Matthews believes the team has a strong future. With experienced players expected to stay and several young cricketers continuing to improve, the West Indies captain hopes the side can learn from this tournament, become stronger, and challenge for ICC titles again in the coming years.
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