Barbados women to begin defence of regional cricket titles

Defending champions Barbados will aim to defend their respective regional titles when the women's CG United Super50 and T20 Blaze tournaments are hosted in St Kitts from March 4-25.

The Super50 tournament will be played from March 4-13 at three different venues: the Conaree Cricket Centre, St. Paul's Sports Complex and Warner Park. Meanwhile, the T20 Blaze will be played solely at the Warner Park venue and will be contested from March 17-25.

Barbados will begin their Super50 title defence against Jamaica on March 4, with Guyana, Leeward Islands, TT Divas and the Windward Islands all vying to upstage Barbados, who have West Indies captain and the International Cricket Council's (ICC) 2023 T20 player of the year Hayley Matthews within their ranks.

Both tournaments will be played in a round-robin format, with each team playing a total of five matches.

On Friday, a Cricket West Indies (CWI) release said the hosting of the Super50 and T20 Blaze tournaments signals the start to a busy year for women's cricketers in the region. Following the conclusion of the respective regional tournaments, the West Indies women will tackle Pakistan in April, Sri Lanka in June and will also set their sights on the women's ICC T20 World Cup which will be held in Bangladesh in October. The West Indies women will end the year with a tour of India in December.

CWI director of cricket, Miles Bascombe, said it was the perfect time to continue the momentum in the women's programme.

"This year's CG United Super50 Cup and T20 Blaze will be a great opportunity to build on what we started in 2023," Bascombe said.

"With the creation of the West Indies Women's Academy and the commendable performance of the under-19 women's team in the historic inaugural ICC women's under-19 Cricket World Cup last year, the ladies have the perfect opportunity to put their names forward for selection into any of these squads by their performances in the CG United Super50 and T20 Blaze tournaments. We are all looking forward to some scintillating performances over in St Kitts."

Last October, CWI announced an increase in the prize structure for the women's regional tournaments. The Super50 winners will receive US$20,000, with the T20 Blaze winners set to pocket US$10,000. The runners-up will receive US$10,000 and US$5,000 respectively.