BRIDGETOWN, Bar­ba­dos – Pres­i­dent of the Bar­ba­dos Crick­et As­so­ci­a­tion (BCA), Calvin Hope, has hailed the out­stand­ing ac­com­plish­ments of all-rounders Justin Greaves and Hay­ley Matthews af­ter they wrote their names in his­to­ry’s books ear­li­er this week.

The two Bar­ba­di­ans be­came the first male and fe­male West In­di­ans to be si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly named as the ICC’s Play­er of the Month af­ter cap­tur­ing the Ju­ly award.

Greaves won the cov­et­ed ac­co­lade for the first time fol­low­ing stand­out per­for­mances in the home Test se­ries against Sri Lan­ka and Pak­istan, while Matthews, who cap­tured the women’s award for the fifth time, was re­ward­ed for her su­perb show­ing against Ire­land in their One Day In­ter­na­tion­al se­ries.

In a press re­lease is­sued on Thurs­day by the BCA, Hope de­scribed their per­for­mances as “ex­tra­or­di­nary” and “a mo­ment of im­mense pride for Bar­ba­dos and the wider West In­dies crick­et fam­i­ly.”

“Hay­ley, your fifth ICC Women’s Play­er of the Month award is a tru­ly out­stand­ing achieve­ment. Your per­for­mances dur­ing the West In­dies Women’s 3-0 ODI se­ries vic­to­ry over Ire­land were ex­cep­tion­al. With 265 runs at an av­er­age of 132.50, in­clud­ing cen­turies in the first two match­es, to­geth­er with sev­en wick­ets across the se­ries, you demon­strat­ed once again the ex­tra­or­di­nary all-round abil­i­ty that has es­tab­lished you among the pre­mier play­ers in the world.

“Justin, we ex­tend our warmest con­grat­u­la­tions to you on win­ning your maid­en ICC Men’s Play­er of the Month award. Your per­for­mances were noth­ing short of ex­cep­tion­al and demon­strat­ed the im­pact of a gen­uine all-rounder at the high­est lev­el,” Hope said in the state­ment.

“Your mag­nif­i­cent 180 against Sri Lan­ka helped the West In­dies se­cure a draw and ul­ti­mate­ly a 1-0 se­ries vic­to­ry. You then pro­duced a match-win­ning bowl­ing per­for­mance against Pak­istan, claim­ing 5 for 27 in the first in­nings and 2 for 12 in the sec­ond as the West In­dies se­cured a mem­o­rable 90-run vic­to­ry. This is an out­stand­ing tes­ta­ment to your con­tri­bu­tion with both bat and ball.

“Your recog­ni­tion along­side Hay­ley Matthews means that two of our own have played lead­ing roles in cre­at­ing a his­toric mo­ment for West In­dies crick­et. We are im­mense­ly proud of you. Your suc­cess pro­vides les­son that hard work will reap div­i­dends and pro­vides in­spi­ra­tion for the next gen­er­a­tion of Bar­ba­di­an crick­eters. May you con­tin­ue to strive for ex­cel­lence, rep­re­sent the West In­dies with dis­tinc­tion, and achieve even greater suc­cess in the months and years ahead,” he fur­ther added.

CMC