Britney Cooper: Women's CPL will develop region's talent

EXPERIENCED West Indies Women’s cricketer Britney Cooper expects that there will be greater exposure for younger regional players, when the inaugural Women’s Caribbean Premier League (WCPL) takes place from August 30 to September 30, 2022.

“It will be the first time a lot of young players in the Caribbean would be exposed to playing cricket on live television, and it will be a big opportunity for other franchises from Australia, England and even India to see their talent and to pick more West Indians in those competitions,” said Cooper, during a telephone interview on Monday.

Cooper was a part of the WI team who won the ICC T20 Women’s World Cup in India in 2016. However, she has been out of action since the beginning of 2022 due to injury.

In a media release on Monday, the CPL announced that the 2022 competition will take place from August 30 to September 30.

As far as the WCPL is concerned, there will be three franchise teams, which, according to the media release, "will showcase the best women’s cricketers from across the Caribbean with overseas stars rounding out the teams.

"The three teams who will compete in the inaugural WCPL will be Barbados Royals, Guyana Amazon Warriors and Trinbago Knight Riders," the media release continued. "The women’s tournament will take place during the men’s event inside the Hero CPL tournament window which this year will run from 30 August and 30 September."

Concerning the impending WCPL, Cooper said, “I’m really excited. We had the T10 Challenge in 2019.

“Cricket West Indies and the CPL have been in discussions to actually have a women’s CPL, and the fact that it’s actually come into play is going to be really exciting,” she added. “I know it’s going to help develop women’s cricket in the region a lot.”

There has not been a regional women's cricket tournament in the Caribbean since the start of the covid19 pandemic in March 2020.

Is this a good opportunity for some of the players to boost their T20 skills and stake a claim for future WI selection? “Yes,” she replied. “It’s unfortunate to know that, because of covid, we have not had a regional tournament for the past couple of years, but this CPL is going to be more than development for women cricket in the region.

“Women’s T20 cricket is going to be played in the Commonwealth Games (in Birmingham, England in July and August this year),” said Cooper.

Barbados will be the Caribbean representative at the Commonwealth Games, by virtue of being the T20 Blaze (regional T20) champions.

“It's not really going to be a big factor (for the Caribbean entrants) this year but it’s going to be a factor once the Women’s CPL continues.”

Cooper is hopeful that there would be the resumption of the WI 50-over and youth tournaments.

“I’m really hoping that Cricket West Indies could start back the regional tournaments as soon as possible,” she said. “We are in a current World Cup year.

“Next year would be the Under-19 World Cup (in Bangladesh in January) and also the T20 World Cup that would be played in South Africa (in February). Time is on the line right now because we need to play as much cricket, not only the senior team but the Under-19 players as well. It is the first time the West Indies would have an Under-19 team in a (world) tournament.”

In related news, the CPL media release noted that this year’s edition "will be played across more countries this year, with three Caribbean countries being selected for the group stages and a fourth venue being chosen for the finals. CPL anticipates that this four-venue structure could become the norm for future seasons."

When asked on Monday morning if Trinidad will be staging matches in this year's edition of the CPL (dubbed the Biggest Party in Sport), Peter Miller, the CPL's head of communications, replied, "to be confirmed."