By Neto Baptiste
Recently appointed head coach of the West Indies women’s team, Courtney Walsh, is hoping to see his players in game situations ahead of any ICC qualifiers for next year’s Women’s World Cup.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show, Walsh said that although the recently concluded camp held here at the Coolidge Cricket Ground (CCG) provided an opportunity for him to work with the players, not being able to see them in game situations has been challenging.
“Well, I am pleased with what I have seen [in the camp] but I still need to get a chance to see them [in a match setting] because we have a lot of work to do and we could only do that by playing, so we need to get out there and start playing ASAP. We can have camps and so on, but we need to get them playing as well; so that’s the biggest challenge right now,” he said.
“It’s a bit challenging but when you look at the other teams that are playing, we need to get out there and try to get some games in. I know Cricket West Indies is trying but I think our biggest obstacle at the moment is that the ICC has not come out yet to confirm or let us know what’s happening with the qualifier sand, because of that, we can’t confirm anything else until we know what’s happening there,” he added.
The former West Indies fast bowler is hoping that a window in which the regional tournament could be held will present itself.
“In an ideal world, yes; you would want to have regionals played so we could see them all with some competitive cricket, have a good look at everybody and then select a squad from that, so we are still hopeful that could be a possibility. But the reality is that we can’t plan any tours until ICC’s thing but we can try to get the regionals in once that window of opportunity presents itself,” Walsh said.
In January, 24 West Indies women cricketers gathered in Antigua for the training camp at the CCG.
The camp was the first face-to-face assignment with the players for Walsh and his technical support team, who conducted the three-week high-performance programme for a mixture of senior players and new faces.
Walsh was impressed with the level of the players.
“I think the eagerness that they show, the ability and potential that is there are very good and positive signs, so I am pretty happy with what I saw in the camp. It’s just a case now where we just need to have some continuity in terms of working with them, getting them to play more, having more camps as well, so we get a good chance to look at everybody,” he said.
The 2022 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup will be the 12th edition of the Women’s Cricket World Cup and is scheduled to be held in New Zealand in March and April 2022. It was originally scheduled for February 6 to March 7, 2021, but was postponed by one year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. On December 15, 2020, the ICC confirmed that the tournament will take place from March 4 to April 3, 2022.