We need a women’s version of the CPL

Mar 17, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

In light of the recent poor performance of the West Indies women cricket team at this year’s T20 World Cup, it is time we take steps to remedy this shortcoming.
In spite of one of our key players, Deandra Dottin, being injured and unable to play at her full potential, the team should have performed much better than it did.
Unfortunately, Hayley Matthews seemed out of form at this time and only Captain Stafanie Taylor and Shemaine Campbell seemed to be in form with the bat. Our bowlers were not as effective when compared with those of the other teams.
Australia has been dominant over the years in Women’s Cricket and this is by no means luck or an accident. They have the Women’s Big Bash tournament where fresh talent is discovered and nurtured. India, which should have lifted at least one Championship given the talent they have, also has one of the strongest teams. Should the IPL owners lend a positive ear to former Indian great Sunil Gavaskar, they would soon start a women’s IPL and discover more talent, as they did Shafali Verma.
Having said that, it was just unfortunate that India ‘chose’ the worst time to have their worst game. Given the strength of their bowling, they allowed Australia to gallop out of the gates, with their openers getting good scores, thanks to dropped catches by unusually loose fielding. When they did get a breakthrough, they picked up a couple of quick wickets, but by then the damage was already half done.
Throughout the tournament, opener Shafali Verma had been carrying the scoring for India, and this was largely responsible for the team being unbeaten in the tournament. This time she failed to get to the boundary once. The usually prolific Smriti Mandhana (she reminds me of Roy Fredericks) did not get going, and the dependable Jemimah Rodrigues failed to score. When Verma, Mandhana, Rodrigues and Captain Harmanpreet Kaur are going accumulate a total score of under 20, one cannot expect to win a World Cup Final. It was the worst time to have such a bad game.
But back to the plight of our Caribbean team. What would it take for the owners of the CPL to start a tournament for women? Judging from the just concluded T20 World Cup, cricket fans are warming up to supporting Women’s cricket. Should such a league be started in the West Indies it will certainly discover many talented players, which will bolster the West Indies team.
To date, Anisa Mohammed is the only Indian player on the team. This is most likely due to the practice of Indian parents to dissuade their daughters from participating in sports. A women’s CPL would go a long way in convincing such parents that they should allow their daughters to explore their talents in cricket. There are quite a few Indian girls in the Caribbean that can play the game, but are not given the opportunity.
This is therefore an appeal to the owners and those of influence to seriously consider starting a WCPL; maybe begin with four teams and see how it goes before expanding. West Indies has too much of a rich cricketing history to be performing at such a mediocre level, and there are too many former greats around for us to be lacking advisers and consultants. Three or four good players on a team are not enough to become champions again. We need a women’s version of the CPL.
Nathaniel Hinckson

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