Aguilleira eyes role reviving Windies Women

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

Former captain Merissa Aguilleira said the recent performances of the West Indies Women’s team was painful to watch and she would be willing to play a part to help reinvigorate the team.

Aguilleira, 35, played 112 One-day Internationals and 95 Twenty20 Internationals for the Windies Women between 2008 and her retirement in April last year.

She said she was disheartened by the side’s results against England this past September, where West Indies Women were swept 3-0 in a T20I series.

“I honestly was lost for words when I saw some of the performances,” she said. “The thing is that these are the same players – three quarters of the team are the same players that won the (T20) World Cup (in 2016), so I think it is more than confidence. I think it is passion.”

She added: “When you look at the people of the Caribbean and the way we express ourselves when we are playing any type of sport, we have fun. I realise there is no fun anymore. There is no cheering and there is no smiling. We cannot play (the game) that serious. That is not our type of cricket.

“We have to enjoy ourselves. I realise the passion is not there. The confidence is not there. They are the same players that have been beating teams, so it’s just not about the ability because the ability is there.”

A wicketkeeper/batsman, Aguilleira was captain of the Caribbean side from 2009 to 2015, including in the final of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2013 India and the semi-finals of the World T20 in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

She was also part of the West Indies team that won the World T20 in 2016 at Eden Gardens in the Indian city of Kolkata

HUGE INVESTMENT

Aguilleira said it is important that Cricket West Indies make a huge investment in the women’s game in the Caribbean to revive the ailing fortunes of the Windies Women’s team.

“The more they focus on the women’s game, the better it will be for us,” she said. “Other teams have better set-ups and the players are taken care of well.

“I know we are in a financial situation where it is very difficult to do things, but there are little things that we can tap into.

“I know the board is trying their best, but some emphasis has to be placed on the women’s team in order to get them back to the level they ought to be. They have to show some more attention.”

In this regard, Aguilleira said her immediate plans were to continue to play her part in the development of the women’s game not only in her native Trinidad and Tobago, where she is technical director for the women’s game, but the rest of the Caribbean.

“Cricket has taken up so much of my life – since I (was young) it has taken much of my life – and I think it should take it much more,” she said.

“I have a lot to offer to cricket still and that is what I am working on now. The West Indies Women’s team, we – and I say ‘we’ because I still feel a part of the team – are in a position we need to start getting back into a good groove.

“This is a time to get back together and try to work, work and work and get back West Indies Women’s team to where it is supposed to be.”

As a wicketkeeper, Aguilleira was involved in 104 dismissals in ODIs, the most for West Indies Women and fifth overall, and 72 in T20Is.

She scored six half-centuries in ODIs in a total of 1,752 runs at an average of 20.61. In T20Is, she scored 768 runs at an average of 14.49 with a best of 39 not out.