00:00The West Indies women have been struggling in white ball cricket, especially the 50 over
00:04format.
00:05They were recently whitewashed 3-0 by India and missed out on crucial World Cup qualification
00:09points.
00:11Cricket analyst Fazeer Mohammed feels not much is being done for the women's game in
00:14the Caribbean.
00:15Head coach Shane Dietz's concerns about the standard of the women's game merely confirms
00:21essentially what has been happening to women's cricket in the Caribbean, neglect.
00:26And that's the bottom line.
00:27Whether it has to do with finances, whether it has to do with priorities, whether at the
00:32administrative level of Cricket West Indies or the territorial level of the various countries
00:37including right here in Trinidad and Tobago, it is quite obvious that the women's game
00:42has not just stagnated but regressed as far as the standards are concerned.
00:47With the ODI World Cup taking place in India in 2025, time will tell if the Wendy's qualify
00:52for the prestigious tournament.
00:54When Mohammed looks back at what the Wendy's were able to achieve in the past to where
00:58they are now, he says it's quite painful.
01:00There may be more young ladies playing the game but where is that drive towards the levels
01:05of excellence that we saw a West Indies team, one, winning a world T20 title in 2016 but
01:11even three years before reaching the final of a 50 over tournament and at that stage
01:17the feeling certainly was that the game was on the up and up.
01:21Mohammed also believes the ladies in Maroon rely too much on the big names.
01:24He says the Wendy's are lagging behind while the others are making huge strides.
01:29Even the players who are coming in to the West Indies team are clearly lacking in a
01:34level of excellence, a level of preparedness, a level of fitness to match the best teams
01:39in the world, the likes of Australia, the new T20 champions New Zealand, England, India.
01:44It really redounds to the authorities regionally, territorially to either prioritise, find the
01:51finances, get the sponsorship but that requires a level of effort and determination and commitment
01:57to the women's game which at this point is sadly lacking.
02:01The West Indies women will also be playing Test cricket in 2026 following a two decade
02:05hiatus in the Red Bull format.
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