Giddings not confident of possible Windies recall despite stellar performances

By Brandon Corlette

Despite recording consistently good performances in past regional tournaments, West Indies Female Cricketer Erva Giddings has consistently been ignored by selectors. This has reduced Giddings to an unbeliever and a skeptic, having lost faith in the selectors’ restoring her to the West Indies Women’s squad.
Despite her stellar performances in the 2019 CWI Women’s Tournaments that were recently held in Guyana, she remains both uncertain and skeptical of being recalled to the maroon colours.

Speaking exclusively with this daily publication, the 33-year-old declared that, from a realistic point-of-view, it would be “a tough task” to return to the team. Giddings, who finished as the most successful fast bowler in both the Colonial Medical Insurance Super50 and the CWI T20 Blaze tournaments, has said that everyone is saying she would be returned to the team, since CWI is under new administration.
The West Indies Women’s Team will tour Ireland from May 26 to May 29 for three T20 Internationals, followed by a tour to England from June 6 to June 25 for both T20I and ODIs. With Robert Haynes dethroning Courtney Browne as Chief Selector, Giddings should stand some chance of being booked to tour Ireland or England, or both countries.

Giddings is a smooth left-arm seamer who has the ability to swing the ball. She told this reporter that the 2019 regional tournaments were the best season she has played. “Prior to the tournament, I remained focused on hitting the perfect line and length, and I trained hard heading into the tournaments”, she disclosed.
Keeping her fingers crossed in regard to West Indies selection, she continues to participate in competitive cricket, playing for the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club male second division teams. In the matches played in the Female Regional tournaments, Giddings displayed a knack for picking up wickets early in the innings.
She backed up her 10 wickets in the 50-Over format with another 10 in the T20 Blaze, and emerged with a bowling average of 7.9 and an economy rate of 4.65. Besides that, Giddings turned in three Player of the Match performances in each of Guyana’s wins in the T20 Blaze tournaments.
Giddings, who hails from Alness Village, Corentyne Berbice, played two ODIs for West Indies in 2016. In what seem a lifetime ago, she has continued to knock on the selectors’ door with solid regional performances. It is only a matter of time before the selectors will have to come up with suitable squads for the Ireland and England tours. The English conditions suit the controlled swing bowling that is Giddings’ specialty, and this should be her time to return to the West Indies’ fold as its new-ball bowler.