A Knight behind the stumps

KYCIA KNIGHT is a Barbadian wicket-keeper/batter and is considered to have one of the safest pairs of hands in the region.

Knight is vastly experienced, having played 12 years of cricket for West Indies, making her debut at 19. Kycia is the twin sister of Kyshona, who also plays for the WI as a middle-order left-handed batter in both limited formats.

The 31-year-old, left-handed Kycia is flexible in her batting position, whether at the top of the innings or in the middle order. In the WODIs (Women One-Day Internationals), Knight played her first match for the maroon in 2011 against Pakistan. She has now amassed 1,327 runs in 80 innings, with a top score of 69.

In the shorter-format WT20Is (Women Twenty20 Internationals), she has totalled 801 runs from 65 matches and her highest score is 62 not out.

Her sharpness behind the stumps brings comfort and assurance to the bowlers, especially the spinners. The razor-sharp keeper holds several records in the WT20s, which is a testament to her exceptional glove work. The records are most catches in a T20, most dismissals in an innings and most stumpings in an innings.

Knight was not selected in the T20 World Cup squad in 2016 that won the tournament, but made the team two years later. The next season, Cricket West Indies showed trust in her by awarding her a central contract for the first time.

One of her most memorable moments as a cricketer is probably Barbados’s victory over the Pakistan women in the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. The Bajan women made an impressive 144 in their allotted 20 overs. Knight led the scoring with an unbeaten 62 runs, belting nine boundaries for her second WT20 half-century. She shared in a crucial 107-run partnership with captain Hayley Matthews. They eventually won the game by 15 runs to rewrite the history books.

Knight will be suiting up for the Trinbago Knight Riders for the second edition of the Women Caribbean Premier League after being on the team last year that won the inaugural tournament. She will be hoping to have a bigger impact with the bat and gloves this time around to help TKR defend their title. She will playing alongside Kyshona and countrymates Deandra Dottin (captain) and Shamillia Connell.

Trinbago

Knight Riders:

Deandra Dottin, Shamillia Connell, Anisa Mohammed, Kycia Knight, Kyshona Knight, Britney Cooper, Zaida James, Lee-Ann Kirby, Carena Noel, Samara Ramnath, Shunelle Sawh, Orla Prendergast, Dane Van Niekerk, Mignon Du Preez, Fran Jonas