West Indies Women’s camp focuses on fitness first

NEWLY-appointed West Indies Women’s head coach Courtney Walsh said the training camp, currently taking place in Antigua, will first focus on the fitness of the players as that has been an area of concern.

A three-week camp involving 24 of the top women’s cricketers in the region bowled off last weekend at the Coolidge Cricket Ground under the guidance of Walsh.

Some of the players at the camp are captain Stafanie Taylor, Deandra Dottin, Hayley Matthews and Anisa Mohammed.

It is the first face-to-face assignment for Walsh, who was hired for the position in October. The covid19 pandemic led to Walsh and his players meeting up to train months after he was hired.

Walsh spoke with journalists via Zoom, on Tuesday, about the camp.

“We have actually started one aspect of it already and that is the fitness.

“Everybody knows that the team’s fitness level has always been questionable. We are putting measures in place to ensure that there is a certain level of consistency as far as the fitness is concerned. Once you’re fit and ready to play then we can work on the skills after.”

The first major tournament Walsh is working towards is the 2021 Women’s World Cup qualifier in June and July in Sri Lanka.

The tournament in Sri Lanka serves as a qualifying tournament for the 2022 Women’s 50-Over World Cup to be held in March and April of that year in New Zealand.

Giving more details about the camp, Walsh said, “It is more of assessing things, it is an assessment camp for me to sort of have a benchmark as to where the ladies are and where we would like to get them in the next couple of months going forward.”

He added, “The qualifiers are right now the main item on the agenda. We have to go to the qualifiers ready and we need to do whatever we can under the conditions to ensure that everyone is ready mentally and physically…this camp now is to set the foundation, assess, have a look and get everybody more or less mind geared towards what we have to do and outline the plan and the strategies we are thinking of going forward.”

Walsh is also eyeing a tour in preparation for the World Cup qualifiers.

“We are hoping to go and play a tour - possibility could be Bangladesh, possibility could be India. We are hoping to have a tour before the qualifiers…we are very hopeful that we can get a tour preferably in the sub-continent as the qualifiers are going to be in Sri Lanka. It would be ideal for us.”

Training Squad

Aaliyah Alleyne, Reniece Boyce, Shemaine Campbelle, Shamilia Connell, Britney Cooper, Deandra Dottin, Afy Fletcher, Cherry-Ann Fraser, Shabika Gajnabi, Sheneta Grimmond, Shawnisha Hector, Chinelle Henry, Qiana Joseph, Japhina Joseph, Kyshona Knight, Hayley Matthews, Natasha McLean, Anisa Mohammed, Chedean Nation, Karishma Ramharack, Kaysia Schultz, Shakera Selman, Steffi Soogrim, Stafanie Taylor

Team Management

Courtney Walsh (head coach, Robert Samuels (assistant coach), Corey Collymore (assistant coach), Ryan Austin (assistant coach), Steve Liburd (assistant coach), Samantha Lynch (assistant coach), Neil Barry (physiotherapist), Shayne Cooper (strength and conditioning coach), Amanda Johnson (mental skills coach), Gary Belle (team analyst), Sheena Gooding (team manager), Naasira Mohammed (media and content officer)