Britney Cooper’s dream comes true

One memory that will be etched in the hearts of the West Indies fans forever is that of Britney Cooper scoring the winning runs to defeat Australia in the women`s final of the 2016 T20 World Cup in India.

Cooper finished the game on three not out as West Indies completed an historic victory with three balls to spare.

The 34-year-old middle order batter made her debut for the maroon against South Africa in October 2009 for both the One Day Internationals and T20 formats. The Trinidadian has played 49 ODI matches scoring 575 runs with a top score of 55 against South Africa. Her last match played for them was two years ago in the home series against South Africa in 2021.

In the shorter version, the T20, she wore the WI colours on 76 occasions scoring 633 runs with the highest score of 66 coming against New Zealand. She last represented them earlier this year in January against South Africa.

Cooper hasn’t been a consistent member of the WI team over the last three years, but she is working towards regaining her spot for the regional side to add to her international tally. She was among the runs in the regional tournaments, the Women T20 Blaze and the Women`s Super 50 tournaments. In the Women`s Super 50 she scored 117 runs in five innings including a notable 52 runs against Jamaica and in the T20 Blaze she notched 87 runs from her five innings.

She competed at the FairBreak Invitational in Dubai last year and scored 32 not out for The Falcons in her only game. The outspoken batter had been advocating for a WCPL for quite some time. After the regional women lost in the semifinals of the 2018 World T20 Tournament – four years before the maiden WCPL – Cooper called on CPL organisers to make room for the women. She believed a franchise-based regional T20 tournament would help the West Indies women catch up to their more experienced counterparts around the world. “We need people in the CPL or corporate sponsors to back us and give us that push,” she told the media in 2018. “We can’t do it all by ourselves. We go out there and put our hearts out on the field, putting our body on the line, but at the end of the day, we need more. We need a mini-CPL.” Cooper’s dream has come through and she will be competing in the second edition of the WCPL, after making the switch from runners-up Barbados Royals to Trinbago Knight Riders.

With the home fans now in her corner and the finals scheduled to be held in Trinidad, Cooper would be champing at the bit to lift the WCPL trophy on home soil.