TRINIDAD and Tobago dished out an all-round performance to register an emphatic five-wicket win over Guyana in match two of Cricket West Indies (CWI) Women’s T20 Blaze yesterday at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence. The victory was first set up by a 68-run opening stand between player-of-the-match Stacy Ann King and Lee Ann Kirby, before Britney Cooper put the finishing touches in the run chase. Earlier, captain Shemaine Campbelle did the bulk of scoring for the Guyanese to guide her team to a commanding 157 for 4 from their allotted 20 overs. However, the visitors reached the target, finishing 161-5 with eight balls to spare.
Meanwhile, Barbados easily overpowered their Leeward Islands counterparts by 99 runs in the first encounter. Player-of-the-match Deandra Dottin made 62 off 23 balls, counting ten boundaries and three sixes; Hayley Matthews, 40 off 23 balls, with eight boundaries and a six while Charlene Taitt made 35 from only 25 deliveries to propel the Barbadians to 206-6. Amanda Edwards took 2-24.
In the final match of the day, Jodian Morgan and Natasha McLean ran riot on the Windward Islands bowlers. The pair posted an opening partnership of 123 runs for the first wicket when Mclean fell for 56. Morgan continued the freestyle batting, together with a 9-ball 19 run not out contribution from captain Stafanie Taylor, Morgan finished the innings on 72 not out as Jamaica posted 185/2 from their 20 overs.
ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Windward Islands Volcanoes veteran left-handed opener Devon Smith and Leeward Islands Hurricanes champion off-spinner Rahkeem Cornwall were the top individual performers who led the incentive award winners in the recently-concluded 2018-19 West Indies Championship.
He and fellow veteran opener Montcin Hodge of the Hurricanes were the only two batsmen that cracked the 700-run club for the season. Smith again earned the Vivian Richards Award for the most runs in the season and a US$1500 cheque.
Cornwall collected exactly 54 wickets at 17.68 apiece in nine matches to finish with the most wickets in a season for the first time. He earns the Courtney Walsh Award and a US$1500 prize.
CWm Media Release: ST JOHN’s, Antigua - Cricket West Indies (CWI) and Mr. Phil Simmons are pleased to announce that both parties have come to an amicable resolution in the claim from Simmons’ dismissal as head coach in 2016.
This is the first action by President Ricky Skerritt and Vice President Dr. Kishore Shallow to fulfill their campaign promise from the 10 point “Cricket First” plan, to repair stakeholder relationships, particularly with former players.
At a meeting today between the two parties at Sandals Grande, Antigua, the new President Ricky Skerritt on behalf of CWI told Phil Simmons, “We would like to apologise to you for referring to your appointment as a “mistake”. Cricket West Indies did not make a mistake when we selected you as our Head Coach.”
President Skerritt added, “In my previous role as CWI Independent Director, I was involved in the interview panel that recruited Phil Simmons from a long list of competitors and he was the best candidate. Subsequently based on the results he produced on the field, he proved himself to be a very competent coach in his time with West Indies, winning the World T20 in 2016, and now currently with Afghanistan.”
In accepting this apology Mr. Phil Simmons said:
“My family and I are relieved that we have been able to finally close this matter, and I am pleased that it has been done so amicably. Following the election on the weekend I am more confident than I have ever been that the future of West Indies cricket is in good hands. I am a very proud West Indian and I hope that in the future I get the opportunity to try and help move our cricket forward again. I would like to offer my congratulations to President Skerritt and Vice-President Shallow.“
After the court hearing formalities in the Antigua Industrial Court on Tuesday, it was agreed that the settlement amount will remain confidential.
Cricket West Indies wishes Mr. Simmons continued success in his current Afghanistan Cricket role and all future endeavours.
The 2019 Colonial Medical Insurance Women’s Super50 Cup was a successful one for the Barbados team – Deandra Dottin was the leading run-scorer with 299 runs while Hayley Matthews topped the bowling charts with 17 wickets. After the fifth and final round, Barbados retained the Super50 title, finishing with a maximum 24 points after winning all of their five matches. Trinidad and Tobago finished second with 19 points while Jamaica came third with 14 points. Hosts Guyana attained 10 points while Windward Islands gathered five points. Leeward Islands lost all four matches and remained without a point on the board. The tournament’s most destructive batter scored 299 runs in five innings, where she was dismissed only once, that was in the 49th over of the fifth and final round against Trinidad and Tobago. Dottin, who goes by the name World Boss, had the most sixes in scores of 23*, 94*, 34*, 75*, and 73 in the five innings she batted and was awarded three Player-of-the-Match prizes.
Newly-elected Cricket West Indies president, Ricky Skerritt, says he intends to issue an apology to former head coach Phil Simmons, for recent controversial comments by his predecessor, Dave Cameron, who labelled the Trinidadian’s hiring as a “bad decision”.
And the former St Kitts and Nevis government minister, who stunned Cameron in last Sunday’s CWI elections in Jamaica, hinted that the regional governing body was poised to settle the long-running legal dispute over damages with Simmons.
Speaking in a wide-ranging interview with CMC Sports today, a passionate Skerritt said Simmons had been “very competent” in his time in charge of West Indies, and described his sacking as one of the low points in West Indies cricket during the last administration.
During the recent election campaign, Cameron told a Jamaica radio station that CWI “made a bad decision when we hired Phil and we had to get out of that situation”.
But Skerritt, who said he was involved in Simmons’s hiring, disagreed.
