By Neto Baptiste
National female cricketer Shawnisha Hector said that although she has received support from coach and former West Indies fast bowler Winston Benjamin, she has faced some difficulty in getting the level of support needed from the national association.
In an interview with Observer, Hector said that not having access to proper training facilities in the past would have hampered her development.
“I got the support from my personal coach [Winston Benjamin] who put me to work along with Carl Casey as my trainer. As for the association, I haven’t really had the availability of any fields to train or anything like that. I just started to train in New Winthorpes but there wasn’t any availability to say I could use the stadium or anything like that so I had to find places where I could go and train,” she said.
Hector, who recently revealed she is no longer under a Cricket West Indies (CWI) development contract after the body opted not to renew the agreement in July this year, said that although she is being assisted by several coaches in her development, gym access is still a major issue for her.
“I had to stick with the same coach that I have always been with in Winston Benjamin and now I have some other coaches helping along with others like Fredo [Keith Frederick] and the national coach for the women’s team [Abdiel Hughes] but I would need assistance gym-wise to strengthen up a little bit more,” the cricketer said.
Hector made her international debut on November 1, 2019 when she became the first Antiguan to play for the West Indies women’s team here at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground.
In July 2019, Hector was amongst seven new players contracted by CWI after she had, that same year, led the Leeward Islands senior women’s team in the regional tournament.