Jacqueline Williams is preparing for another major step in her career as an international cricket umpire. The Jamaican is in New Zealand to do duty in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, where she is among the list of match officials. She is fresh from the ICC Men’s U19 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies, where created history as the first female to stand in the tournament. She also had the special honour when she was the fourth umpire in the final at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.
Now the 45-year-old is New Zealand and readying herself for the marquee event in women’s cricket. The tournament bowls off on March 4 with the opening match between hosts New Zealand Women and our West Indies Women at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui. The event runs until April 3 with the final at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch.
“The ICC U19 Cricket World Cup was a very successful one for me. Going into any event I really don't look towards being in the final or anything like that, I just focus on doing my job to the best of my ability,” Williams said. “One of the things that I was able to do, I prepared well for the tournament, and I was fortunate enough to be selected for the final, among an excellent team of officials. Making it to the finals, you know, that was a surreal moment for me and a very humbling one as well.”
FORMER TT and West Indies fast bowler Tony Gray believes West Indies women star batters Stafanie Taylor, Deandra Dottin and Hayley Matthews must step up during the 2022 International Cricket Council Women’s World Cup. However, Gray said the team must not rely too much on the quality trio.
West Indies will play the opening match of the tournament against home team New Zealand from 9 pm, TT time, on Thursday
Often times the success of the West Indies batting depends on how many runs Taylor, Dotttin and Matthews contribute.
However, other players have scored runs in recent months including number three batter Kycia Knight.
“I think that obviously there must not be a dependency on the three main players,” Gray said.
“We cannot depend on them. We have to have great all-round performances by everybody and the dependency syndrome on three of the main players must stop.”
JAMAICA SCORPIONS head coach Andre Coley has made it clear that his players need to take more responsibility for their performances if the team is to claw its way from the foot of the West Indies Championship table.
Following back-to-back losses away to Trinidad & Tobago Red Force and the Barbados Pride, the Scorpions find themselves at the bottom of the standings with 8.8 points.
Once again, the perennial problem of the team’s batting has surfaced and continued to plague the Jamaican side, who have seen good early signs wiped away by clusters of wickets which have cost the team dearly.
“A high percentage of our dismissals were very soft, to say the least, and we haven’t played consistently good cricket. In each department, you can identify in patches periods of play where we were dominant, but to say that we have been able to put a game together to win, we have not done that in two matches,” said Coley.
Off-spinner Bryan Charles claimed a three-for to lead the resistance for West Indies President’s XI, amidst a trio of England half-centuries on day one of the four-day warm-up match at Coolidge.
Opener Alex Lees top-scored with a solid 65 off 214, and partner Zak Crawley made 62, with an additional half-century from England captain Joe Root, who added 54 from 105, as England closed the opening day on 251 for 4.
After winning the toss and choosing to bat Lees and Crawley had England off to a comfortable start, until the partnership of 88 without loss was broken by Charles who had the batsman bowled.
THE new lead selector of the West Indies cricket team, the Most Honourable Desmond Haynes, along with Ramnaresh Sarwan, chose their squad to play against England in the first Test, of a three-Test series, which starts on March 8 in Antigua. Phil Simmons, the team’s coach, retains his place as the third selector.
Some commentators disagreed with the choice of the Jamaican John Campbell to open the batting with the captain Kraigg Brathwaite.
They believe that he hadn’t done enough as a Test player to earn a recall. However, there hasn’t been any opening batsman recently who has played a decent Test innings, except Brathwaite.
Jeremy Solozano was the replacement when Campbell failed, but was quite unfortunate to be dealt a sickening blow to the helmet while fielding at short leg on his Test debut in the first of a two-Test series in Sri Lanka, in late November 2021. The resulting concussion ruled him out of the series. That opportunity having been lost, the young Trinidadian has to address the selectors once more. International sport is tough and opportunities lost have to be regained with effort.
