Campbell wants his girls to be “top ranking” PDF Print E-mail
Monday, 23 April 2012 21:55
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – West Indies Women’s coach Sherwin Campbell said he wanted to continue building a team for the future and felt the upcoming series against Sri Lanka Women could see his players taking several “steps forward”. The Windies Women have been in camp for 10 days as they prepare for the eight-match series, which will feature three One-day and five Twenty20 Internationals. The opening match is an ODI tomorrow at Kensington Oval. First ball is 09:00hrs (08:00hrs Jamaica Time)
“The team has been working extremely hard on their batting skills as we believe that our bowling and fielding levels have been consistently high,” said Campbell.
The former West Indies men’s opener and vice-captain expressed great satisfaction with the work done during the camp, where the emphasis was batting against spin with a view of dominating Sri Lanka’s slow bowlers.
The home team showed earlier this year that they can handle the slow bowling when they beat India in both formats on home soil.
West Indies Women have several players ranked in the Top-20 in batting in ODIs. Stafanie Taylor, the ICC Women’s Cricketer-of-the-Year 2011, currently tops the batting table with a 63-rating-point lead over India’s Mithali Raj. Should Taylor perform well in the series, she could further secure her spot as not only the No. 1 batter, but also the No. 1 all-rounder in the World.
“We enjoyed a really good series against India and with Sri Lanka being ranked lower than they, we need to do well in this series in order to raise our ICC rankings,” said Campbell.
“All of the players have been working towards that objective and, of course, Stefanie will want to maintain her World ranking as an all-rounder and a batter, and Deandra Dottin has also been moving up the rankings.”
Campbell said: “We also have one new girl, 17-year-old Natasha McLean, and she is one of the players for the future. She is a solid top-order batter and also a capable wicketkeeper. She has come into the team and looked quite comfortable and ready to play her part.”
“We played against Sri Lanka a few times before so we know what to expect. We lost to them in Sri Lanka a few years ago, but we beat them in the World Cup qualifiers (ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2013), so we know what to expect.
“Their team is built around spin bowling, so we know what we will come up against. They are not strong (physically) as our play, but they are talented and we know we can beat them.”
The 20-year-old Taylor also tops the ICC Women’s ODI Player Rankings for all-rounders with an 85-point lead over Australia’s Lisa Sthalekar. Her team-mates, the powerful Deandra Dottin (seventh), inspirational captain Merissa Aguilleira (17th) and veteran opener Juliana Nero (20th), all have a good chance to bat their way up the batting rankings in this series.
In the bowling rankings, Taylor is also the highest-ranked West Indian at No. 6 and her team-mate Anisa Mohammed is at No. 7. Left-arm spinner Shanel Daley is at No. 13 on a career-high 502 points.
The two teams are using the upcoming matches as part of their preparation for the ICC Women’s World T20 Championship to be played in Sri Lanka in September and October as well as the ICC’s Women’s Cricket World Cup to be played in India in February next year.
West Indies Women’s squad: Merissa Aguilleira (captain/wicketkeeper), Stafanie Taylor (vice-captain), Shemaine Campbelle, Shanel Daley, Deandra Dottin, Pearl Etienne, Stacy-Ann King, Natasha McLean (wicketkeeper), Anisa Mohammed, Subrina Munroe, Juliana Nero, Amanda Samaroo, Shakera Selman and Tremayne Smartt.
 

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