Cricket has been affected adversely with the ongoing crisis. The game on the field has taken a hit and live actions are talks of the past. Nevertheless, minds have not gone too far. Players are discussing cricket off-the-field and the fans have been entertained by the newer and recent insights.
In a report published by Jamaicaobservor, Caribbean female cricketer Matthews has given a call to the cricket administrators for more domestic matches. The young star for the Windies women has come up openly in a recent interaction. She feels that the female cricketers in the islands have not been given an appropriate or a sufficient number of matches in the recent domestic settings.
The 22-year-old Barbadian explained on the Mason and Guest radio programme on Tuesday night, “I think we need more regional cricket. We haven’t had much over the years, [and] when we do have our regional cricket in the year it is usually about two [or] three weeks of a tournament.”
She points out that in the last two years, regional cricket has not been many. She further said that the nation needs more of regional cricket. She elaborates that regional cricket is mostly for two or three weeks. A fifty over tournament alongside a T20 competition happen in those times. It is natural and obvious that a regional program of a week or two is not adequate for the growth of a cricketer.
The cricketing board in the Windies organizes an ODI competition named Super50 Cup and T20 Blaze for the shortest format. These tournaments are considered as the premier tournament for women’s cricket in the islands. However, both events happen around the same period as pointed by Matthews. In the previous edition of the tournaments, six teams from Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Windward Islands and Guyana took part and faced each other for five rounds in both formats. The matches were hosted by Guyana and Matthews along with her team were the pick of the performers.
However, with a global lockdown in place due to coronavirus, the board had to shift the Super50 cup to the future. Interestingly, an inaugural Under-19 tournament was also a part of the scheme. Matthews is just 22 and had got her side a T20 world cup four years ago. She added that a lesser number of tournaments translate into lesser opportunities for the younger faces. Matthews had made her debut when she was just 16 and realizes the importance of grooming younger talent.
She feels that many talented players in the Caribbean are missing the bigger stage as they have not played adequate and competitive domestic matches. Matthews has played 43 one day internationals and half-ton T20Is. Matthews is, also, one of the few faces from the Caribbean to have played a great deal of cricket in T20 leagues around England and Australia.
While she understands the limitation of resources for the players, she feels that best shall be extracted from whatever is available. She mentions that while bigger cricketing nations will have an umpteenth number of grounds in a state, Windies might have few in the whole country. It is upon players to get themselves up and running in all sorts of the facility.
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