00:00These young cricketers representing the UWI women's team were involved in a
00:05training session on Wednesday afternoon. They play in the TNT Women's Cricket
00:09Association's Premiership Division. They are currently involved in the 50-over
00:13league competition and play their final limited overs match away to Cadwork
00:16Achievers on February 23rd. UWI all-rounder Michaela Jodan is confident
00:21about her team's chances but at the same time respects the opposition. I expect
00:25that it would pose a great challenge for us but I do believe that we have the
00:28capability to come out victorious. We wouldn't be at full capacity because
00:33some of our key players were selected to represent Trinidad and Tobago in the
00:36regional tournament but I think it's a great opportunity for the rest of us to
00:41really come out and show what we could do both as individuals and a collective
00:46unit. The manager of the UWI women's team is Nadra Dwaraka-Batiste who is also a
00:50qualified umpire and how did this team come about? So this team was established
00:55in 2012 and the leader of that revolution was Miss Crystal James. She
00:59was a former student at UWI and they used to love cricket a whole lot and we
01:03had this lovely field here and no team. So they started to play a little bit
01:07with windball and then they would have graduated to the hardball and eventually
01:11they would have formed the team. So it was a developmental team for a long time
01:14and then eventually we had challenges with students, schedules, exams but we won
01:19the championship tournaments in 2019 the T10 and T20 and in 2022 we were
01:27elevated to the Premiership division by placing second in the Championship League.
01:30The team's home venue is the UWI spec where they were conducting their
01:33training sessions. The team also has some well-known players that have represented
01:37the West Indies at the highest level. Well it's a mix actually so what we have
01:41the students coming into the university most of them are here to study so they
01:45are learning. So our colour of students range from national to beginners but our
01:51coach Stephanie Power she caters to develop all of them. So we have the
01:57students as the core but we do have the outside players as we call them the
02:01specially invited players that make up the rest of the team. So this year we
02:04have players such as Leanne Kirby, Renice Boy, Shilini Samaru so they have
02:08served to strengthen the team. UWI hope to clinch the 50 over title but there
02:12are others also in the race with bonus points coming into the picture. So what
02:16has kept UWI in such a strong position? Well I think one of the things that
02:20attracts Puss & Server Club is the team spirit that we have and we are a team on
02:24the field and off the field as well. We also have dedicated players coming to
02:27practice and then we have them executing that in the game. So you know we have
02:31always been a team where we're like a family. So we take that spirit from each
02:36game to each practice. There isn't any sort of confusion back and all as they
02:41would say. So it's a real family setting and our coach is really, some people say
02:47like a mother to us in the team. Following the 50 over tournament the
02:50Premier Division teams then focus on the T20 format and Dwaraka Baptiste is
02:55confident UWI can be a force to be reckoned with in the shorter format.
02:58Vinod Nawani, Thieves Export.
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