KOLKATA, India, CMC- Stafanie Taylor, the captain of West Indies Women who have just won the T20 World Cup for the first time, says a recruitment programme is needed as part of an elaborate plan to keep the sport alive in the region.
Taylor, who was voted player of the tournament, is worried that women’s cricket in the region could suffer a significant decline if a proper system is not put in place for when the current crop of players retire. The Jamaican all-rounder says a recruitment drive needs to target schools across the Caribbean, in particular.
“We need to go into the schools and try to get girls to come out,” said Taylor.
“I think we do have girls that are interested. It’s just that you don’t have anyone to push it, and I think that’s where we need to start, by going into the schools and getting these girls out”.
Taylor, who replaced Merissa Aguilleira, as the Windies women captain last year, has been one of the leading scorers on the team along with Barbadian all-rounder Deandra Dottin.
In their impressive eight-wicket victory over Australia to win the ICC T20 World Cup on Sunday, the Caribbean side surpassed a challenging target of 149 with three deliveries remaining, following a rollicking opening stand of 120 between Taylor and teenager Hayley Matthews.
“I think we definitely need some infrastructure where as Australia and England they do have it. We need young girls coming up,” said Taylor who scored 59 off 57 balls in the finals while Matthews earned the award for Player-of-the-Match, by smashing 66 off 45 balls.
“When you look at our team. Most of us are fairly young and when these core players are gone. It’s going to deteriorate and we need to start building young players coming up”. Taylor has also been effective as a bowler taking a total of eight wickets in the tournament, three of which came in the semi-final against New Zealand.
She has moved up five places in the bowlers’ rankings to 35th, according to the new ICC player rankings released yesterday.
