The announcement of the qualification process for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games (CG) should be a major boost for players, technical personnel and administrators across the Commonwealth Caribbean.
The host, England- and six other top-ranked countries according to the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s T20 Team Ranking as of April 1, 2021 will automatically qualify for the CG. The final spot will come from a Commonwealth Games Qualifier to be determined no later than January 31, 2022.
As the West Indies is made up of independent Commonwealth countries, a qualifying tournament will be staged in March/April 2021 to determine the country that has the honour to represent the region at the CG. The details of the West Indies ICC qualification tournament must be confirmed by Cricket West Indies (CWI) by January 15, 2021. It is expected that a bio-secure bubble will be used similar to this year's Caribbean Premier League (CPL) for the qualification tournament.
The staging of cricket at the CG 2022, will be the second time cricket will be an event at Commonwealth Games. Cricket made its debut at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with a men’s competition of 16 countries. Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and Jamaica were the West Indies representatives and included Curtly Ambrose, Richie Richardson, Winston Benjamin, Philo Wallace, Ottis Gibson, Hendy Bryan, Jimmy Adams, Wavell Hinds, and Andre Coley to name a few. South Africa defeated Australia for the gold medal and New Zealand copped the bronze ahead of Sri Lanka.
The 2022 CG provides an enormous opportunity to build on the existing growth momentum that the women’s game has been experiencing in recent years especially after a record capacity 86,174 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and millions of viewers across the world viewed the final of ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020.
According to Commonwealth Games Federation president Dame Louise Martin, "Cricket has always been one of the Commonwealth’s most popular sports and it is so special to have it back at our Games for the first time since the men’s competition at Kuala Lumpur 1998, where true greats of the game including Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Sachin Tendulkar were on show.
"Now is the turn of the women and I can’t wait to see the next generation of stars like Heather Knight, Harmanpreet Kaur and Meg Lanning take centre stage.”
According to England’s captain Knight, the CG is “another fantastic opportunity for the game of cricket, with coverage live on the BBC, and the chance to reach the thousands of fans who like attending multi-discipline events."
Lanning, Australia’s winning T20 World Cup captain views the CG as “an exciting milestone and one that will no doubt create plenty of excitement among players across the globe."
Likewise, India’s Kaur sees the importance of the players as being “emissaries [ambassadors] of the game since it can get us new followers and fans."
Based on the aforementioned, there are several benefits to be derived by regional and more specifically Trinbagonian players/technical personnel/administrators from having the opportunity to represent their country and region at the 2022 CG:
- An opportunity of a lifetime to be on the centre stage with the top players in the world especially for those players who have never played for the West Indies. It will be a great opportunity to learn from the best in the world.
- An opportunity for players to showcase their skills and talent in the most productive manner so as to leave an indelible mark on the minds of potential scouts of franchise cricket from across the world especially with speculations abound for a full-fledge Indian Premier League (IPL) for women in the making.
- An opportunity for technical personnel- coaches, trainers etc- to interact and share knowledge about various aspects of the with their counterparts from the top countries.
- An opportunity for administrators to learn about cricket development and also to forge collaborative relationships for the overall development of the game across the world.
These benefits will not be accrued without a proper strategic action plan to win the regional qualifier and then participate in the Games. And to do this the focus should be on: Increasing fitness levels- fitness levels affect every aspect of the game; Developing winning T20 skills - batting, bowling, fielding; Creative and dynamic captaincy- out thinking/strategising the opponents; Improving performance using data- strike rates, economy rates, runs saved/given while fielding, running between wickets etc.
- Improving mental preparation- overcoming mental blocks especially when playing certain opponents such as Barbados and Jamaica.
- Having the right blend of players- horses for courses.
Overall, the training squad and technical team must place the CG qualification on the front burner: everyone has to put their hands up to be counted. Firstly, success will require both an individual and a collective desire to win. Secondly, the players/team have to convert their desire to win into a consistent effective formula on the field.