The West Indies Women?s cricket team has qualified for the 2005
Women?s World Cup in South Africa. However, with just months to go,
problems confront the queens of the regional game.
Coach Ann Browne-John, who is the women's representative on the
West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is however optimistic that the
team will take its place in the tournament, despite the financial
problems with which it is faced. In this interview, she discusses
the challenges facing the women's game in the West Indies.
Have you been looking out all day for Sunday's camp diary
report? Sorry to disappoint you, but at about 1:30 p.m, Bennett
King said to me "you can go home now. I've given you the afternoon
off" and you'd be silly to spend another glorious Barbados weather
day plunking out words on a computer.
Now, would the players be as fortunate as I was, to be given an
afternoon off? Read on and see...
It's a lazy Saturday here in Beautiful Barbados, but only for
me, the birds and the visitors. For the West Indies squad involved
in a preparatory camp at the 3 W's Oval, it's an energy sapping day
and the blazing sun is compounding the effects of the rigorous
paces that Bennett King and his coaching team are putting the
players through.
I got to the practice session at 1:50 in the afternoon (I did
say it was a lazy Saturday didn't I ? and I'm a visitor so I'm
allowed). Deighton Butler was just on his way to the indoor
nets where he would join Pedro Collins, Mervyn Dillon and Narsingh
Deonarine working in pairs using two bowling machines.
Bennett King is heading into the third and final week of his
first camp as head coach of the West Indies cricket team. Over the
first two weeks, King and his coaching staff have had the
opportunity to assess the players both in a training and
competitive environment.
The day after the second of two practice matches was played,
King rapped with journalists about his first impression of working
with the West Indies teams, preparations for the Australia tour and
more?
Why is it not surprising that the West Indies Cricket Board
(WICB) has got itself and the future of the game in the region into
another pickle?
Simply put, the WICB in its structure, outlook and functioning
is programmed to de-materialise West Indian cricket; indeed, there
is no assurance that a settlement will be reached in the interest
of all in the matter of the Board?s attempts to manhandle the
players and their association over individual rights.
