Samuels appointed interim West Indies women's coach

Cricket West Indies (CWI) has announced the appointment of Robert Samuels as the interim head coach for the West Indies women’s team for the upcoming CG United One Day International (ODI) series and West Indies T20 International (T20I) series against Ireland in St Lucia.

Courtney Walsh was removed as West Indies women's coach in April.

Samuels, a former Jamaica captain and West Indies batsman, played six Test matches and eight ODIs in addition to 106 first-class matches and 77 List A matches. His most recent role was as assistant coach with the West Indies women’s team.

Speaking on Samuels’s appointment, CWI’s High Performance manager Graeme West, said, “Robert brings continuity and stability to get the team through this period. He has great knowledge of the players and the women’s game in general and strong knowledge of the support staff, so it’s almost a seamless transition with Robert coming in as interim head coach. He has his own ideas and is trying to implement them now as interim head coach as opposed to assistant coach. He has made a good impact and start over the last few days and I’m sure it will continue throughout the series.”

The interim assistant coaches are former West Indies spin bowler Ryan Austin and Steve Liburd, the former Leeward Islands batsman and captain. Liburd is the head coach of the West Indies Women's Under-19 Rising Stars.

The West Indies 18-member squad is at a training camp at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground in St Lucia where they are preparing to face Ireland women in the three-match CG United ODI series which starts on Monday. This will be followed by the three-match T20I series from July 4 to 8.

The three CG United ODIs comprise West Indies’ third fixture in the ICC Women’s Championship where they are pushing to win points to achieve a top five position to qualify automatically for the ICC 2025 Women’s Cricket World Cup.

Match Schedule (All matches played at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground)

ODI Series:

Monday: 1st CG United ODI, 10 am

Wednesday: 2nd CG United ODI, 10 am

July 1: 3rd CG United ODI, 3 pm

T20 Series:

July 4: 1st T20I, 5 pm

July 6: 2nd T20I, 5 pm

July 8: 3rd T20I, 5 pm