Positive expectations from West Indies Captain for the ICC Women’s World Cup

Despite having four new players coming into the team, the Captain of the West Indies Women’s World Cup side, Stafanie Taylor, is confident that once the team applies themselves they stand a chance to do well.

The ICC Women’s World Cup is slated to take place from June 24 to July 23 in the United Kingdom with eight teams playing 31 matches over five venues which will culminate with the Final at Lords. Four young players who have done well in regional cricket will make their international debut at the tournament. These include 16-year-old fast bowler Qiana Joseph, 19-year-old wicket-keeper batsman Reniece Boyce, 23-year-old Aleira Peters and 25-year-old opening batsman Felicia Walters. They will join Captain Taylor, Merissa Aguilleira, Shamilia Connel, Shanel Daley, Deandra Dottin, Afy Fletcher, Kyshona Knight, Hayley Matthews, Anisa Mohammed, Chedean Nation and Shakera Selman.

Captain Taylor is still confident in her team to do well even with the newcomers to the side.

“Everyone knows everyone so I do not think it is that hard. The four-day camp was to get players together and work on the camaraderie and get the gelling going and I like where the camaraderie is going, so I am pretty much confident going into the World Cup,” she expressed.

In relation to the team, especially the inexperienced players adjusting to the English environment, she said that the team leaving to head over two weeks early to prepare and acclimatise to those conditions will hopefully help them start well from the first game. When asked about any teams she was looking out for, her response was that all the teams were good and some have also improved over the last couple years, so it would be best to take them on match by match. Also playing each team in the T-20 World Cup last year, it gave the girls a chance to see each team in person and realise that it was actually more or less a level playing field.

Coach Vaspert Drakes also stated that he felt good about the team’s preparations and state of mind, since the mini-camp recently held for team bonding.

“I feel good about where we are at. This mini-camp has certainly served its purpose. A lot of learning would have taken place over the last year in relation to our preparation and expectations as a group. I am currently looking forward to the challenge at hand,” she added.

That challenge would be facing down the expectations of the West Indies fans who are still on a high from last year’s triumphs after the Men’s Women’ and U-19 West Indies Squads lifted the T-20 World Cup titles. Drakes did say however that fear and pressure are created in the mind.

“Pressure is something that we create ourselves. Being involved in cricket it is my job to manage that expectation well and obviously see that it is a competition that we want to do well, but it is not worry about the peripheral stuff,” she explained.

He went on to say that once a team is playing any sort of competitive sport, the expectation is to win but the focus must be dealing with the job at hand and take the days one by one and the team could undoubtedly do something special. Taylor went on to reiterate that it would be a mental challenge with more balls per innings in this competition and the girls will have to use the experience in these two weeks and apply themselves to the task at hand.