Basseterre, St. Kitts, March 15, 2019 (DBSKN) — The Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis Leeward Islands Cricket Board Women’s Team is in Guyana in preparation for the Windies Women Championship 2019 whose opening ceremony will be held tomorrow Saturday March 16 at the Georgetown Cricket Club.
Six teams, Leeward Islands, Windward Islands, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and hosts Guyana are taking part in a two-phased competition – the Women’s Super50 Cup, and the Women’s T20 Blaze.
The Women’s Super50 Cup starts on Sunday March 17 and will be held in five rounds that will see the Development Bank Leeward Islands Cricket Board Women’s Team, which is kitted in uniforms bearing the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis logo, face Barbados at Everest in the first round.
In the second round, to be held on Monday March 18, the Development Bank Leeward Islands Cricket Board Women’s Team will face Trinidad and Tobago at the Guyana Cricket Club; in the third round on Wednesday March 20 they will face hosts Guyana at Enmore; in round four on Friday March 22 they will face Windward Islands at Enmore; while in the fifth round on Sunday March 24 they will face Jamaica at the National Stadium.
All the matches in the Women’s T20 Blaze will be played at the National Stadium. In the first round on Thursday March 28, the Development Bank Leeward Islands Cricket Board Women’s Team will face Barbados between 9:00-11:45 am; in round 2 on Friday March 29 they will face Guyana (9:00-11:45 am); in round 3 on Saturday March 30 they will come up against Trinidad and Tobago (7:00-9:45 pm); in round 4 on Monday April 1 they will face Jamaica (2:00-4:45 pm); while in the fifth round on Wednesday April 3 they will face Windward Islands (2:00-4:45 pm).
The team is made up of Shawnisha Hector (captain), Saneldo Willett (Vice Captain), Rozel Liburd, Tynetta McKoy, Melicia Clarke, Jamella McClure, Amanda Edwards, Terez Parker, Tonya Martin, Jenisen Richards, Malissa Howard, Elisa Claxton, Tiffany Thorpe, and Shebani Bhaskar. Kattian Edward-Baltimore is the manager, while Leon Rodney is the coach.
Five of the players on the team are from St. Kitts and Nevis including Nevisian Saneldo Willett who is the vice-captain. Others are Tynetta McKoy and Elisa Claxton from St. Kitts; and Rozel Liburd and Melicia Clarke from Nevis. There are two guest players on the team, Tiffany Thorpe from Barbados, and Shebani Bhaskar from the USA.
“Development Bank has always been a partner,” said Mr Vernon Springer, Leeward Islands Cricket Board’s Cricket Operations Manager. “They have been a partner with us for a long time and it has been an existing partnership we cherish a whole lot, because over the years they would have sponsored our Under-17 and Under-19 uniforms, including our Under-15 and the women’s team. But this time we are cementing a realistic partnership, going forward with the women’s cricket team, which we feel needs that support as compared to the other age-groups tournaments.”
The Development Bank Leeward Islands Cricket Board Women’s Team is a vastly improved team, and according to Mr Springer the team is expecting to do better than they did in the last Windies Women Championship that was held in Jamaica where it was voted as the best fielding team in the competition.
Mr Springer thanked the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis for taking a keen interest in the team’s development singling out the bank’s CEO Mr Lenworth Harris who is himself a former St. Kitts cricketer and the bank’s Marketing Officer Ms Vernitha Maynard who was instrumental in ensuring that sports and in particilurar cricket received the support of the bank.
In the meantime, manager of the Development Bank Leeward Islands Cricket Women’s Team Mrs Kattian Edward-Baltimore says that even though the team is the newest in the tournament, she is proud of the players adding that they take their game seriously.
“When they play they do not play for themselves,” said the team manager. “They play for their family because they do not want that grinding when they go home. They play for their friends, they play for the Leewards, they play for their country and they do not want to let the sponsor down, because one thing we boast is of having the best uniform in the entire competition.”
Mrs Edward-Baltimore said that the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis is doing a very good thing for cricket in the Leeward Islands and the Caribbean, “because West Indies team are looking for fresh people coming from the Leeward Islands. With the bank’s sponsorship, and its logo on their shirts, people zoom in on that because they always ask us, who is this sponsor?”
