The Cricket Association of Thailand, on Sunday 25th April, announced that the Thailand team, previously led by Sornnarin Tappoch, will now be led by Naruemol Chaiwai in all formats of the game. Nannapat Khoncharoenkai will be serving as the vice-captain while Tappoch will continue to play as an all-rounder.
Feeling grateful and overwhelmed about being selected as the team’s new captain, Chaiwai said- “I am extremely humbled to be given the opportunity to captain the Thailand national team. I consider myself very lucky to be given this opportunity and I proudly accept this responsibility and its challenges with great pride. There is a great mood and momentum in the camp and I personally feel everyone in the team is in a good place mentally and physically, our goals are well defined, and we share a common vision to excel. With a smile in my heart, I believe exciting times are surely guaranteed in the future!”
Thailand Women’s Cricket team has a new Captain. pic.twitter.com/WEw1HtMYJn
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) April 25, 2021
The 30-year-old batter has played 39 T20Is for her country scoring 676 runs, including two half-centuries, at an average of 21.80. Khoncharoenkai, who’ll be playing the vice captain’s role, is the wicket-keeper of the squad. Having played 37 matches, she has 388 runs to her name in the T20I format.
Talking about Chaiwai, she made her captaincy debut in the year 2008 in the ACC U-19 Women’s Championship. Being one of the best players that Thailand has, Chaiwai has portrayed a variety of roles in the team – A powerful middle-order batter, the best spin bowler of the team, and also a previous wicket-keeper, she has it all.
She put up her batting skills on display during the 2020 T20 World Cup, which was also a first for the country. She is one of the finest all-rounders that the country or the team has seen. She was the finest player during Sri Lanka vs Thailand Asia Cup 2018 when the latter defeated the former with Chaiwai scoring a well-placed 43 runs.
Former Captain Tippoch had been leading the side for 14 years as she first captained the team in 2007. Since then, she went on to play each and every game that Thailand has played to date. She is the only player from Thailand to have a century to her name. She also led her team in the 2020 ICC T20 Women’s World Cup and won a gold medal at the South East Asian Games 2017.
Team Thailand will be seen playing next in the Women’s World Cup Global Qualifiers scheduled by Sri Lanka in December 2021.
I’m a Senior Masters student pursuing Journalism and Mass Communication. An all time Cricket enthusiast. I could never play the game but always loved watching it, and now writing about it!