Matthews has sights set on women’s T20 World Cup glory

Despite the focus on the upcoming Men’s T20 World Cup, West Indies Women’s captain Hayley Matthews is gearing up to help West Indies Women win their second T20 World Cup five months from now.

While the Caribbean and the USA will jointly host the highly anticipated men’s event from June 1 to 29, the Women’s World Cup will bowl off on October 3 in Bangladesh.

West Indies Women lifted their first and only World Cup title in 2016 when they defeated favourites Australia by eight wickets in Kolkata, India.

On that occasion, a then 18-year-old Matthews smashed 66 off just 45 deliveries to lead them to victory with three balls remaining.

In an interview with Barbados TODAY on the sidelines of a presentation to the Barbados Royals Girls Cricket Club at Friendship on Tuesday, Matthews, the number one ranked women’s T20 allrounder in the world, said winning the T20 World Cup was one of her main goals for 2024.

And with the regional team set to tour Sri Lanka next month, where they will play three One-Day Internationals and three Twenty20 Internationals, Matthews said they would be using it as preparation for the global event in October.

The tour comes on the heels of West Indies Women’s successful tour of Pakistan where they won both the ODI and T20 series, losing just one of eight matches played.

“Everyone would have had a nice month or so at home, so it’s about getting ourselves into tip top shape before we head off for a camp in Sri Lanka before the series.

“The T20 World Cup is probably the main goal for the year, but at the same time on the Sri Lanka tour we have ICC Championship points to play for that would help for qualification for the 50-over World Cup next year. So I think that both the 50-over and the T20 aspects of this upcoming tour are going to be pretty serious and we’re going to want to do really well in both the formats,” Matthews said.

Meanwhile, Matthews told Barbados TODAY she was delighted that the hard work she had put into her preparation was paying dividends.

The 26-year-old Barbadian recently became the first female to be named Wisden’s Leading Twenty20 cricketer in 2023, following a run of eight consecutive T20 match awards, in which she averaged 88 with the bat.

Last year, in 14 T20 internationals, Matthews scored 700 runs from 14 matches at an average of 63, and grabbed 19 wickets at an economy rate of 6.84.

Across men’s and women’s T20 – domestic and international – her tally of 1,551 runs was topped only by England’s Jos Buttler.

She said she was elated with her performances and was hoping for further improvements in the coming months.

“I am truly grateful. From the time I was 10 years old I knew I wanted to be a professional cricketer and anytime you set out those dreams and want to do something so big, when success comes you’re obviously really grateful for it. Hopefully I can continue to grow, get better and have an even better 2024,” Matthews said. (GH)