Women’s cricket coach buoyant, despite format

Coach of the St Vincent and the Grenadines women’s cricket team Cleton Burnett is not in agreement with the format of the regional tournament, but hopes his charges make the best of their sojourn.

St Vincent and the Grenadines, once a powerhouse in the regional women’s set-up, has been relegated to a configuration with Grenada to form the Southern Windwards for the 2015 edition.{{more}}

The 13-member St Vincent and the Grenadines outfit will travel to Grenada this weekend to play three back-to-back 50-over matches against the host, from which the Southern Windwards team will emerge.

A similar arrangement is also in place for Dominica and St Lucia to give birth to the Northern Windwards.

The two Windwards teams will join Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana and host Trinidad and Tobago for the West Indies tournament next month.

But for Burnett, “The new format is not something that I agree with because when the West Indies Cricket Board took over women’s cricket, it was basically set out with the goal of bringing cricket awareness throughout the Caribbean … This new format reduced it by two teams and I am not seeing any efforts to attract more people to the game.

“Female cricket has done well for the West Indies and more needs to be put in female cricket as far as the awareness of the game, the sensitizing of the game to younger women throughout the Caribbean and spreading it rather than minimizing it,” Burnett claimed.

However, Burnett said despite their disapproval, his team has readjusted their outlook.

“Our team goals are to dominate the competition both by winning the games, as well as achieving the most picks,” Burnett projected.

A buoyant Burnett said, “I have a lot of expectations of the team performing well with both bat and ball…. We have a balanced team, not only a mixture of youth and experience, but most of the players are either batting or all-rounders.”

Burnett’s team will be led by the experienced former West Indies player Juliana Nero, with Stacey Ann Adams as vice captain.

The rest of the team comprises: Cordel Jack, Crystal John, Latoya Providence, Nyasha Williams, Japhina Joseph, Kayleen Garrick, Shavorne Clarke, Vinisha King, along with newcomers Samantha Caine, Kimone Homer and Shenezia Daniel.

Former St Vincent and the Grenadines player Samantha Lynch is the team’s assistant coach.(RT)