The West Indies women's cricket team, nicknamed the Windies, is a combined team of players from various countries in the Caribbean that competes in international women's cricket. The team is organised by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), a full member of theInternational Cricket Council (ICC), which represents fifteen countries and territories. The West Indies currently competes in the ICC Women's Championship, the highest level of the sport, and has participated in five of the ten editions of the Women's Cricket World Cupheld to date. At the most recent 2013 World Cup, the team made the tournament's final for the first time, but lost to Australia. At the inaugural edition of the World Cup, in 1973, two teams that now compete as part of the West Indies, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, competed separately. A combined West Indian team made its Test debut in 1976 (almost 50 years afterits male counterpart), and its One Day International (ODI) in 1979. At the ICC World Twenty20, the team won its first title at the 2016 tournament, having made the semi-finals in each of the preceding tournaments.
West Indies is a country steeped in deep cricket tradition and, though never as high profile as the men, the women have been a useful force since the 1970s, the time when their game started to get more serious. There were two island sides in the first Women's World Cup in 1973 - Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica - and this was also the same decade that West Indies Women made its debut in Tests. The men's board took over the game in 2005 and, although the women didn't play internationally for three years, the domestic competition was strong enough to ensure it kept its fifth-place world ranking in the 2009 World Cup. Its best showing to date in a major tournament came in 2010 when it knocked out holders England on the way to the semi-finals of the ICC World Twenty20 on home soil and in the ICC World Twenty20 2014, when it again made it to the semi-finals.
Current squad
Sl No. | Name | T20I Matches | Batting | Bowling style |
| 1 | Stafanie Taylor (c) | 68 | Right | Right-arm off break |
| 2 | Shakera Selman (v/c) | 59 | Right | Right-arm medium |
| 3 | Merissa Aguilleira (wk) | 73 | Right | |
| 4 | Shemaine Campbelle | 72 | Right | Right-arm medium-fast |
| 5 | Shamilia Connell | 10 | Right | Right-arm fast |
| 6 | Britney Cooper | 41 | Right | Right-arm fast-medium |
| 7 | Deandra Dottin | 82 | Right | Right-arm fast-medium |
| 8 | Afy Fletcher | 7 | Right | Right-arm off break |
| 9 | Stacy-Ann King | 70 | Left | Left-arm medium |
| 10 | Kycia Knight (wk) | 33 | Left | |
| 11 | Kyshona Knight | 25 | Left | Right-arm medium |
| 12 | Hayley Matthews | 13 | Right | Right-arm off break |
| 13 | Anisa Mohammed | 80 | Right | Right-arm off break |
| 14 | Shaquana Quintyne | 36 | Right | Leg break |
| 15 | Tremayne Smartt | 56 | Right | Right-arm medium |
West Indies | |
Nickname | Windies |
Association | West Indies Cricket Board |
ICC status | Full member (1926) |
ICC region | Americas |
Coach | Vasbert Drakes |
Captain | Stafanie Taylor |
First Test | |
(Montego Bay; 7 May 1976) | |
First ODI | |
(Teddington; 6 June 1979) | |
First T20I | |
(Dublin; 27 June 2008) | |
World Cup | |
Appearances | 5 (first in 1993) |
Best result | Runner-up (2013) |
World Cup Qualifier | |
Appearances | 1 (first in 2003) |
Best result | Runner-up (2003) |
World Twenty20 | |
Appearances | 5 (first in 2009) |
Best result | Winner (2016) |
History
Test history
The first Test series played by the West Indies was at home to Australia in 1975–76, when both the three-day matches were drawn. In 1976–77 the same team then played a six Test series away to India. They lost the fourth and then won the sixth Test by over an innings to level the series. The remaining games were drawn.
1979 then saw the Windies play their third Test series, this time away to England. However, they fared poorly, losing the first and third Tests and drawing the second to go down 2–0.
Finally, in 2003–04, after a 24-year wait, the West Indies resumed Test cricket with a one-off match away to Pakistan, this time played over 4 days. The result was a draw.
ODI
When the first World Cup was played in 1973, the West Indies did not compete as an individual unit. Instead a separate team represented Jamaica, and another side represented Trinidad and Tobago. Additionally, three West Indian players participated in an International XI side that also competed in the 1973 World Cup. None of the teams fared well, however, with the International XI finishing in fourth place out of seven with a record of won three, lost two and one no result; Trinidad and Tobago finishing fifth with two wins and four losses; and Jamaica finishing sixth with one win, four losses and one match abandoned. The first one-day internationals (ODIs) played by a combined West Indian side were two games away to England during their 1979 tour. Three ODIs were planned, but the second ODI was washed out without a ball being bowled. In the first ODI, England won comfortably by eight wickets, and in the third ODI saw the West Indies level the series with a two wicket win. 1993 saw West Indian players compete in a World Cup for the second time, this time as part of a combined team. They finished seventh, with only Denmark and the Netherlands below them, after winning only two and losing five of their seven matches. Their next games were in the 1997–98 World Cup, where they finished in ninth place, above only Denmark and Pakistan. The only match they won was the 9th place play-off game against the Danes.
2002–03 saw the Sri Lankan women's cricket team tour the West Indies and play a six-match ODI series, which the Sri Lankan's won six-nil. The closest match was the fourth, where the Windies went down by only 9 runs. 2003 saw the Windies greatest cricketing success, when they finished second in the International Women's Cricket Council Trophy, after winning four and losing one of their five games. The Trophy was competed for by the weaker ODI sides – Ireland, Windies, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Scotland and Japan.
2003–04 saw the Windies play five ODIs in India followed by a seven ODI and one Test tour to Pakistan. All five games against India were lost comfortably. As expected, the tour to Pakistan was more successful and the ODI series was won five-two.
They finished fifth in the 2004–05 World Cup, ahead of Sri Lanka, South Africa and Ireland, but behind Australia, India, New Zealand and India. They won two and lost three games, with one no result and one abandoned match. After being eliminated from the World Cup, the team stayed on to play three ODIs against South Africa and won the series two-nil.
Tournament history
Women's Cricket World Cup
· 1973 to 1988: Did not participate
· 1993: 6th place
· 1997: 9th place
· 2000: Did not participate
· 2005: 5th place
· 2009: 5th place
· 2013: 2nd place
ICC Women's World Twenty20
· 2009: 5th place
· 2010: semi-finalists
· 2012: semi-finalists
· 2016: Champions
ICC Women's Cricket Challenge
· 2010: 1st place
Records
Test cricket
Highest team total: 440 v Pakistan, 15 March 2004 at National Stadium, Karachi, Pakistan
· Highest individual innings: 118, Nadine George v Pakistan, 15 March 2004 at National Stadium, Karachi, Pakistan
· Best innings bowling: 5/48, Vivalyn Latty-Scott v Australia, 7 May 1976 at Montego Bay, Jamaica
· Best match bowling: 5/26, Peggy Fairweather v India, 27 November 1976 at Jammu, India
ODI cricket
· Highest team total: 229/5 v Denmark, 20 December 1997 at Delhi, India
· Highest individual innings: 108 not out, Stafanie Taylor v South Africa, 16 October 2009 at Paarl, South Africa
· Best innings bowling: 5/36, Cherry-Ann Singh v Ireland, 29 July 1993 at Dorking, England
Indies converted their maiden appearance in a World Twenty20 final into a historic victory in Kolkata, beating three-time defending champions Australia for the first time in a T20 international by pulling off the second highest chase in the tournament's history. The heroes of the daunting pursuit were 18-year old Hayley Matthews and the captainStafanie Taylor, whose half-centuries and 120-partnership came at more than a run a ball. Their effort left West Indies with two runs to get off four balls, and when Britney Cooper pushed to Megan Schutt at midwicket and sprinted, what should have been a run-out at the bowler's end resulted in the overthrow that sealed the title. Their team-mates blazed a trail on to the field and the women were soon joined by the West Indies men in joyful celebrations in the middle of Eden Gardens. Those scenes scarcely seemed likely when West Indies were run ragged in the first half of the game, as half-centuries from Elyse Villani and Meg Lanning helped Australia post an imposing 148 for 5.
However, Matthews and Taylor clinically brought the chase into the realms of possibility. From the 10-over mark, there was an air of inevitability to the chase as Matthews, who combined her big-hitting prowess with delicate dabs, attacked the bowling. She laid into Jess Jonassen, who had conceded only 12 off her first three overs, to turn the tide going into the last seven overs of the chase. Just like that, Australia, who had a fourth title well in their grasp for the first 25 overs of the clash, saw the trophy slipping away as their bowlers, who clinically applied the choke in a similar situation against England, fell apart under pressure.
The West Indies bowlers had also come under severe pressure under the wheel of Villani and Lanning, who made 52 apiece in a dominating batting display. Lanning had enjoyed the best seat in the house as Villani peppered the leg-side field with regularity. Full tosses were swept fiercely, while short balls were pulled with disdain, with as many as six boundaries in the Powerplay overs coming between fine leg and deep square leg. Villani's aggression helped Australia tide over the dismissal of Alyssa Healy in the second over.
Lanning had slapped her second ball into the point boundary to trigger a blaze of strokes that left West Indies playing catch-up before they could soak in the occasion. Having blasted 54 in the first six overs, Australia were on their way to an imposing total.
Once the head start was achieved, both batsmen negated Anisa Mohammed's spin threat by milking the bowling. That Taylor employed as many as six bowlers in the first eight overs showed the extent to which Australia had derailed West Indies' plans. Dottin had been central to West Indies' march to the final, not just with the bat but ball too. Her variations in pace and pin-point accuracy at the death had been tough to get away, but her predictability against some serious hitting by Lanning and Villani, who brought up her fifty off just 34 deliveries, failed to put the brakes on the scoring.
West Indies had a wicket against the run of play, when Villani was caught at cover off a leading edge to break a 77-run partnership off just 60 deliveries. But Ellyse Perry provided a surge, and Lanning's wrists and extraordinary strokes, aided by supreme fitness, threatened to achieve a target beyond West Indies. Australia brought up 100 in the 14th over as Lanning laid into Dottin by hitting her for three successive fours, two of which pierced a packed off-side field. Once Lanning fell for 52, it was Perry who gave the finishing touches, hitting two sixes in her 28. West Indies, though, fought back to concede just 36 off the last five overs.
Something about the last over of Australia's innings - they scored only one - fired West Indies up. For the first three overs of the chase, however, Australia put a lid on the scoring, conceding just nine runs. The defending champions began to relax, but Matthews was just getting started, unfurling boundary after boundary to build pressure on Australia.
Halfway through the chase, Lanning called her team into a huddle in a bid to regroup, but to no avail. The wicket of Matthews, who miscued a pull off Kristen Beams to midwicket with West Indies needing 29 off 26 balls, came as relief rather than joy. That allowed Dottin, who had an off day with the ball, a shot at redemption, which she gleefully accepted as West Indies celebrated a historic triumph in style.
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is the governing body for professional and amateurcricket in the West Indies (a sporting confederation of over a dozen mainly English-speakingCaribbean countries and dependencies that formed the British West Indies). It was originally formed in the early 1920s as the West Indies Cricket Board of Control (and is still sometimes referred by that name), but changed its name in 1996. In November 2015, the Board resolved to rename itself as Cricket West Indies as part of a restructuring exercise that would also see the creation of a separate commercial body. The Board has its headquarters in St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda.
