St John’s, ANTIGUA – Five well-known women and established women in their fields of professional work will partner with Cricket West Indies for the upcoming Women’s Championship scheduled for Jamaica, June 10 – 24.
The two-categories Championship forms part of the defending World Twenty20 champions, West Indies’, preparation for the November 2018 stand-alone ICC WWT20 event in Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana and St Lucia.
The women who have offered full support include, Ann-Marie Vaz, Education Advocate; Dahlia Harris, Film and Theatre Director, Television Host; Patricia Garel, Football Administrator, Sport Manager; Sandra Walter Glasgow, Angel Investor, Mentor and Sport Enthusiast and Yaneek Page, Entrepreneur, Business Trainer, Writer and TV Producer.
The Patrons will support the six teams, 84 players, 4 venues, two titles CHAMPIONSHIP on their various platforms while attending as many matches as they are able to. They will participate in the meet and greet sessions at the beginning and end of the CHAMPIONSHIP. The matches are scheduled to be played at Chedwin Park, Kensington Park, Sabina Park and UWI.
“We are happy for the partnership with these outstanding women,” says Sheena Gooding, CWI’s Project Officer. “We are creating an environment that will help to develop the momentum for the November event and we look forward to an exciting Championship in Jamaica. We are working with the Jamaica Cricket Association to make this tournament a success,” added Gooding.
The defending champions are Trinidad and Tobago (T20) and Barbados (Super50). The trophies will be for the T20 Blazeand the Super50. The tournament will have two phases with the T20 Blaze being played between June 10 – 17; and June 21 – 24 for the Super50. Both will be round-robin.
LOOKING AHEAD TO NOVEMBER
Later this year, the first-ever stand-alone World T20 Championships will be held. The full schedule will be released this summer following a round of qualification in the Netherlands. In the meantime, Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana and St Lucia are the three countries that won the bid to host the event.
Women’s cricket broke records in 2017. That final with England vs India sold out to a packed Lord’s Cricket Ground (sold out) to 24,000. Even broadcast TV had record-breaking views.
“We expect to maintain or even top that,” says Tournament Director, ICC Women’s World Twenty20 Championship.
The WINDIES Women are the defending champions as they won back in 2016 in a thrilling encounter against Australia. In the final, the West Indies defeated defending champions Australia by eight wickets, claiming their first title. Adding to the win by the Caribbean side, captain, Stafanie Taylor was named player of the tournament, having scored more runs than any other player. She has now amassed 2,582 runs in T20I with a highest score of 90. This June 27, Stafanie will celebrate 10 years in T20I as she made a stunning start with 90 against Ireland in Dublin.
The WINDIES Women are now in a one-month camp in Antigua and Barbuda, home of Cricket West Indies. The camp got underway on April 30.
-CWI
