- 1 year ago
Our reporter, Dominic Ramroop, sat down for an exclusive chat with West Indies Women’s and Barbados Royals Women’s captain Hayley Matthews. In part one, which aired on TV6’s Morning Edition segment – ‘Get to know your WCPL Players’, Matthews talks about her background in the game and much more!
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00:00Hayley, first of all, thanks for having a chat with us.
00:03So just tell us firstly a little bit about how you started playing cricket.
00:07I started as a young girl, not that I remember.
00:11But my father told me him and my brother just used to be outside on a daily basis
00:16playing a bit of cricket in the backyard.
00:18And one day I decided I wanted to come out and join.
00:21And yeah, he said I started to enjoy it a lot.
00:24I wanted to come out every day.
00:26I wanted to just hit balls and play with the two of them.
00:29And he realised that I kind of started to find a love for the game
00:33and put me into a junior club in Barbados.
00:36So I read on a profile that you would have captained your school's team
00:40with boys at 11 or 12 years old.
00:43What was that experience like?
00:45Did the boys show any sort of malice or animosity
00:49towards a girl being their captain or anything like that?
00:51What was that experience like?
00:52Yeah, it was pretty cool, but they took me in really well.
00:56I think if there's one thing for sure, primary school and when I was a young
01:00and a 13-year-old girl, captaining those two teams,
01:03all the guys, I think they respected me as a cricketer.
01:06That was one thing for sure.
01:08And yeah, they definitely took me into the team, didn't give me a hard time.
01:12And yeah, I had a great time playing at that age group
01:15and learning a lot, not only about my game, but about leadership as well.
01:19So you've been on the international scene for 10 years now.
01:23You debuted at 16, was it?
01:25You've accomplished so much in that 10 years,
01:28but you're just now hitting your prime.
01:31What more are you looking to achieve for your career?
01:36Well, I guess the way I'm performing right now, I'm pretty happy with,
01:40but I always want to get better and continue to be better.
01:45I think now as captain of the West Indies as well,
01:48I have a big role that I can play outside of just affecting my own personal game.
01:53Yeah, for me it's about inspiring the girls within our team
01:56and being able to set a really big example.
01:59But at the same time, I think with the way women's sport is growing now,
02:03we know within the team that we can have such a big impact
02:06on just young girls growing up within the islands.
02:09And then being able to watch us and see that women's cricket
02:13is a proper career that you can have now, you can make a living out of it.
02:17And the same way that I was able to fall in love with the game as a young girl,
02:21I hope to inspire young girls to want to come out and play the game of cricket
02:25and fall in love with it.
02:26And I think the best way to do that is to continue to go out there
02:29and perform and continue to do well.
02:31And yeah, every time I step onto the field, that's what I try to do.
02:35And I think the accolades and the records and everything
02:38will come with those performances.
02:40So you mentioned how women's sport is growing,
02:42and cricket in particular is growing really fast at the moment.
02:45As someone who's played in the major T20 leagues,
02:48WPL, WBBL, WCPL now, and the 100 as well.
02:53How does it compare in the Western leagues as compared to Australia, India, England?
02:58Yeah, obviously they've had massive programs in place for a very long time.
03:03So I think it's expected to see them probably being further ahead
03:07when it comes to the standard of their cricket at the 100
03:11and at the WBBL in Australia.
03:15But I think what we have done really well here,
03:18especially implementing this WCPL,
03:20is I think they've made sure the standard of the cricket is as good as it can be.
03:25And I think that's one of the bigger reasonings for having the three teams
03:28rather than having five or six.
03:30And it is getting better, I think, from year one
03:32when we had that tournament in St. Kitts
03:34to the standard that the cricket was at last year.
03:37We saw 150, 160 being scored in regular games.
03:41Even in the finals, I think we sat around 170.
03:44And we only managed to win by about 5 to 10 runs.
03:47So it just shows that the girls are improving.
03:49The standard of the internationals we have coming in now as well,
03:53they're making a massive difference within the games and how they're going.
03:56And yeah, this year things are going really well.
03:59I think the wickets have definitely been bowler-friendly over the first few games.
04:03But I think over the last two nights as well,
04:06you've seen the scores going up with the later games
04:08and the dew affecting the wickets and helping them to slide on a bit more.
04:12So yeah, I think the way it's progressed in the last three years,
04:15this is the biggest thing.
04:17And once we're able to continue getting better and better each year,
04:20especially when it comes to the standard of it,
04:22we'll find ourselves catching up eventually,
04:24even if it takes a little while.
04:26So what do you think we could do here in the region, in the Caribbean,
04:30to promote and grow women's cricket a little bit more?
04:33I think just try to put programs in place where you can.
04:37I think one of the biggest things that I've noticed
04:40going to Australia and England is that a lot of these superstars
04:43within their game have started at a very young age
04:46because they've had opportunities from the time they were at school
04:50to go out and play cricket and be in proper programs
04:53and come up in proper systems.
04:56And that's obviously one of our bigger problems here in the Caribbean.
04:59We have so many girls starting out because they've played on the streets
05:02with the boys or they just got into cricket like myself as well,
05:06but they didn't necessarily have any proper female programs
05:09to come up and come through.
05:11And I think the faster we can implement some of those programs
05:14and get young girls not only playing cricket but feeling safe
05:18and getting to play with girls their age
05:21and probably not having to get in with the boys.
05:23Don't get me wrong, I think playing with the boys
05:25is one of the best things that has happened to me
05:27because it was able to challenge me right up,
05:30but that can also scare away young girls as well.
05:33So I think the more programs we're able to put in place,
05:36the more schools we're able to get into,
05:38the more investment we're able to put into the women's game overall
05:41I think is the biggest thing in helping the growth and moving forward.
05:45So Hayley, you are ranked in the top ten rankings
05:48for batting, bowling and all-round in both formats
05:51of the white ball game for Western East.
05:53What makes Hayley Matthews so consistent at her game?
05:57I think these days I tend to understand my game a lot better.
06:04I think over the last two years or so I have taken up a role
06:08of putting a lot of responsibility on my shoulder
06:11and I guess as the captain, I think something like that
06:15may hamper some people, but I seem to thrive under it in some way.
06:21I've enjoyed being a leader within the team
06:23and setting a really big example.
06:25I think that I've been fortunate to have a lot more experiences
06:30than the other girls, given the opportunity to go
06:32and play in the Big Bash in the 100 from the time I was 16 or 17.
06:37I think my experience over all those years, like I said,
06:40has just helped me to understand my game a lot more.
06:44Then when you add that with the responsibility
06:46that I do have within the team, it seems like they've been
06:49a good combination for me to perform consistently.
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