Barbados Women will represent the region at next year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, when cricket returns to the showpiece for the first time in 24 years.
This follows their capture of the 2019 Cricket West Indies T20 Blaze in Guyana, the last domestic women’s tournament to be played prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has since halted the staging of all domestic competitions.
The T20 Blaze scheduled for this year was expected to serve as the West Indies qualifying tournament for the Commonwealth Games but CWI took the decision last month to postpone both that and the Women’s Super50 Cup until next year.
“We want to congratulate the Barbados Women’s team for being named to represent the West Indies in the Commonwealth Games 2022,” said CWI chief executive, Johnny Grave.
“This is an historic occasion as for the first time Women’s Twenty20 cricket will feature at this prestigious global sporting event, which is a great fillip for our sport and great exposure and opportunity for the players.
“We wish them all the very best as they compete for the gold medal, and we know they will continue to do West Indies proud.”
CWI said finding a suitable scheduling period for the domestic tournaments had been “very challenging” due to the “logistical challenges” posed by the ongoing pandemic.
Many Caribbean countries are still undergoing government-enforced lockdowns and other social restrictions as part of measures to fight the pandemic, with air traffic still restricted.
Also, the recently announced eight-match white-ball tour by South Africa Women from August 31 to September 19 led to further scheduling difficulties.
“It has been a challenging period with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic at our doorstep, and we have been forced to take the decision to postpone the Women’s T20 Blaze and Women’s CG Insurance Super50 Cup for this year,” Grave explained.
“We have however been able to invest in several High-Performance Camps and international fixtures to the Women’s squad, conducted by Courtney Walsh and his coaching staff.
“These have been hugely beneficial to date and we have identified a core group of players who are the best available in the region for the ICC Women’s World Cup qualifiers who will benefit from the additional resources that CWI is committing to preparing the West Indies Women’s squad.”
The Commonwealth Games will be staged from July 28 to August 8, with Barbados joining the likes of hosts England, along with Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa and Pakistan in the historic women’s T20 tournament at Edgbaston.
West Indies Women are not allowed to compete at the Games as one entity.
CMC
