An impressive all-round bowling performance and ice veined innings from captain Hayley Matthews saw Barbados Royals defeat Guyana Amazon Warriors by one wicket with a solitary delivery remaining in a thrilling opening match of the 2024 Massy Women’s Caribbean Premier League (WCPL).
Matthews won the toss and chose to field first at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba, Trinidad and her side restricted the Warriors to what was thought to be a below par score of 118/9 off their 20 overs.
The wickets were shared around between Royals’ seam and spin bowlers, Aaliyah Alleyne taking 3/21 from her four overs including the crucial wicket of a well-set Stafanie Taylor for 38.
It was far from a comfortable chase for the Royals, the 2023 champions found themselves 44/3 and 50/4 during their innings but Matthews kept her head with wickets falling all around her, finishing unbeaten on 61 not out off 58 deliveries having batted through the innings to secure victory for her side and get the defence of their trophy off to a winning start.
Sri Lankan batter Harshitha Samarawickrama has joined the Trinbago Knight Riders for the 2024 Massy Women’s Caribbean Premier League (WCPL). She replaces Meg Lanning who has been forced to withdraw due to injury.
Samarawickrama has played 98 international matches for Sri Lanka and has scored more than 2000 runs for her country including a century in ODI cricket. She will join Shikha Pandey, Jemimah Rodrigues and Jess Jonasson as the overseas players for the Knight Riders at the 2024 WCPL.
The Knight Riders get their tournament underway on the 22 August against the Barbados Royals at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad.
Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) women's team captain Deandra Dottin believes her team has a great chance of winning the the 2024 edition of the Massy Women's Caribbean Premier League (WCPL).
The tournament bowls off from 7 pm on August 21, when defending champions Barbados Royals take on Guyana Amazon Warriors at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy (BLCA) in Tarouba.
This season's opening fixture is a rematch of last year's finale, which saw the Royals edging the Warriors by a eight-run margin at the BLCA venue after a stunning allround performance by West Indies skipper Hayley Matthews.
For the third edition of the tournament, though, Dottin says TKR are ready to reclaim their title after beating Matthews and the Royals in the 2022 finale. Dottin, 33, the owner of the fastest 100 in women's Twenty/20 Internationals, was named as the Player of the Tournament in 2022.
The third iteration of the Massy Women’s Caribbean Premier League (WCPL) 2024 starts on Wednesday August 21, in Trinidad & Tobago. Three teams will compete in a double round robin format. All matches will be played at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba.
This year’s WCPL has attracted a number of new faces, including some of the biggest international stars in the women’s game. The format means each team will play the other two teams twice and the top two teams will play in the final on Thursday August 29.
Ahead of the first ball on Wednesday, the tournament was officially launched on Monday evening in Port of Spain. Tournament director Michael Hall said that the care and attention being put into the women’s game matches that which goes into men’s cricket from the CPL perspective. But he notes that the addition of a women’s league is simply reflective of global trends towards greater inclusion in sport.
“It is a great pleasure for us to be staging the third edition of the WCPL,” he said. “Four years ago when we were approached by Cricket West Indies with the idea of staging a tournament that would help us to showcase the best of women’s cricket from the region as well as some of the best from overseas, we immediately jumped at the opportunity.
“Chanderpaul, eyes focused like a laser on the ball from run up to the moment he demolishes it with his trademark pull/sweep, raises his bat, and kisses the pitch as the ball ricochets back off the boundary. The “Tiger” has reached yet another half century, this one the most important of all.” That was a few days ago, as Guyanese and Caribbean cricket legend Shivnarine Chanderpaul, former captain of the West Indies team, ICC’s Hall of Fame inductee, West Indian hero, and one of cricket’s most celebrated players, attained 50 years old.
Deserving appreciations for this unsung hero from Unity village, Guyana, who was denied the chance to become the leading test scorer in West Indies cricket, and “forced to retire,” when his career was unceremoniously derailed by Dave Cameron’s and the WICB’s whimsical and spiteful actions, poured in, not least in “Little Guyana,” where he is revered. The left-handed batsman scored 11,867 runs at an average of 51, with 30 centuries in an illustrious career of 164 Tests to end at the second place in the list of all-time West Indies run scorers, 86 runs short of legendary Brian Lara with 11,953 runs.
