The Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba, Trinidad and Tobago, will host the grand bowl-off of the Massy Women’s Caribbean Premier League (WCPL) today, as the tournament embarks on its first stand-alone edition in its three-year existence.
The opening game is a rematch of last year’s final, with the reigning champions Barbados Royals taking on the runners-up Guyana Amazon Warriors at 19:00hrs.
During the tournament’s official launch at the Hilton Hotel in Trinidad on Monday, Assistant Vice-President of Marketing and Communications at Massy, Candace Ali, expressed high expectations for this year’s tournament.
“It’s really, really special to us. Massy is majority female organization, especially Massy Stores, which I represent. Across the region, we’re 70-80 percent female. So, opportunities afforded to women (are) really important to us.
“I just want to say we’re really proud of you, we’re looking forward to some excellent cricket, we want to see some great coverage from the media and some fantastic cricket played,” Ali shared.
GAW’s Shakera Selman speaking during the WCPL launch earlier this week
During the launch, several players expressed gratitude for the opportunity to showcase the women’s game in the Caribbean. One such player was the GAW’s Shakera Selman, who also thanked those involved for investing in the women’s game.
Selman stated, “First of all, I want to say thank you to CPL and Cricket West Indies for ensuring that we finally have a women’s franchise tournament in the Caribbean. For many years, the females have been asking for this tournament, and watching the men’s tournament, we felt that we had a lot of talent to display as well.
“It was just mentioned, Karishma [Ramharack] and Anisa [Mohamed] pointed that out, we’re very happy that CPL decided to invest in the Women’s game in the Caribbean. Of course, we all know and we have seen what franchise tournament around the globe have done for women’s cricket in particular countries. When you look at Australia, England and India, you see the impact it has had on their improvement in the women’s game, and we hope that it can do the same thing here in the Caribbean as well.”
The Massy Women’s CPL will conclude next Thursday, with the final scheduled for 15:00hrs at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy. (G6)
