REIGNING champion West Indies begins its ICC Women’s T20 defense against Bangladesh on Friday 9th November 2018 at the Guyana National Stadium. But one thing for certain: Saint Lucian cricket fans will be keeping a close eye on its very own, Qiana Joseph.
Joseph, a student of the Corinth Secondary School and a member of the Northern Zone Grassroots Cluster under the watchful eyes of Head Coach – Alton Crafton.
She is one of Saint Lucia’s most talented female cricketers and has been called to represent the West Indies Women for the second time in her short cricketing career. The young all-rounder has been in consideration for the regional team ahead of the ICC Women’s World Cup.
The left arm seamer and left hand batter received a call from Cricket West Indies, Chairman of selectors Courtney Brown earlier this week, where she was informed of her latest cricket achievement.
The Windies will take on South Africa in three One Day Internationals (ODIs) and one T20Is match at Kensington Oval, Barbados on September 16th, 19th, 22nd and 24th. The two teams will then travel to Trinidad and Tobago for the remainder of the tour where they will play four T20I at the Brian Lara Stadium Cricket Academy, September 28th, 30th and October 3rd and 6th.
Following the South Africa showdown, a fifteen member team will be selected to be part of the World Cup squad for matches scheduled for Guyana (November 9th -17th), Antigua and Barbuda (22nd -24th/ Reserved day 25th) and Saint Lucia (10th-18th)
By all indications, this is a great sign for things to come as Saint Lucians wait in high anticipation as to whether they will be given the chance to see young Joseph in action at an ICC WWC match when the showpiece comes to the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground; the Windies will play South Africa on Wednesday 14th at 8.00 p.m; Sri Lanka on Friday 16th at 8.00 p.m; and England on Sunday 18th from 4.00 p.m.
And to make it even more interesting, Daren Sammy who captained the West Indies in all three formats of the game and two times ICC World T20 Champion (Sri Lanka 2012) and (India 2016) has been selected to join the Windies Ambassador Programme to help promote the upcoming ICC Women’s World T20.
Sammy has confirmed that he will make appearances between September and November in the campaigns – called #WatchThis – to spread the word.
The VOICE spoke to Qiana’s coach Alton Crafton about her latest achievement and this is what he had to say, “I was very elated of hear of her selection; I wasn’t that surprised, I followed the pre-tournament camp in Antigua and Barbuda and based on the feedback I received, she was doing well, she impressed the selectors in the various facets of the game”.
“I still feel a lot more can be done in Saint Lucia in terms of our own programming, we need to work on getting a facility organized so we can readily use as we look to develop a number of young cricketers”. Crafton noted.
Meanwhile, the Windies women currently lie fifth on six points in the eight-team Championship standings, after defeating Sri Lanka 3-0 in the Caribbean last October, and then going down by a similar margin away to New Zealand last March.
The South Africans are one from bottom on four points.
