LONDON, CMC – Marquee West Indies women’s players, Stafanie Taylor and Deandra Dottin, are among 18 overseas players set to highlight the inaugural Women’s Super League bowling off here this summer.
Both players played key roles earlier this month in helping to fire the Caribbean side to their first-ever Twenty20 World Cup title, with a win over three-times defending champions Australia Women a fortnight ago.
Jamaican Taylor, the Windies captain, has signed on for Western Storm while Dottin, a Barbadian, will play for Lancashire Thunder.
The six teams – also comprising Loughborough Lightning, Surrey Stars, Southern Vipers and Yorkshire Diamonds – will do battle in the Twenty20 campaign under a round-robin format from July 30 to August 14, with the final set for August 21.
Taylor is one of the leading batsmen in the women’s game in both shorter formats, and was voted Player-of-the-tournament in the recent T20 World Cup for her 246 runs an average of 40.
She will line up alongside South African Lizelle Lee and New Zealander Rachel Priest, with top England players Anya Shrubsole, Heather Knight and Fran Wilson all included.
General manager Lisa Pagett said said Taylor would be an asset to Storm.
“We are really excited to have Rachel, Stafanie and Lizelle playing for Western Storm this summer,” Pagett said.
“They are exciting cricketers and potential match winners in their own right. To have players of this calibre playing alongside Anya, Fran and Heather makes for a really exciting Western Storm line up.”
Dottin, meanwhile, will arrive with quite a reputation. She was the first woman to score a T20 hundred – off just 38 deliveries – back in 2010 and was also excellent with both bat and ball in the recent World Cup.
Both Taylor and Dottin also played in the Women’s Big Bash League last December.
