CaribbeanCricket.com – The independent voice of West Indian cricket

Fri Feb 27 ’26 by KRISSANIA YOUNG

In this two-part series, former Windies seamer Shakera Selman talks about the state of the current team and the challenges facing women’s cricket in the Caribbean.

So is it reasonable to expect players to switch quickly, given the limited number of games they play?

I think maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on them if they don’t improve as quickly as the players from other countries. They don’t play enough cricket at regional level. And our players need to play more cricket outside the Caribbean too.

If it’s not possible for us to support them to play more cricket here because we don’t have the finances there, then we need to have relationships with counties in England, Australia or wherever where we can send them to some program abroad.

You made a point when you talked about Gajnabi, who just played a regional competition of six T20s and then three 50-over matches. If she is not selected for the West Indies team, she will not play again until the CPL starts. And that’s not enough for an international cricketer. So we have to find ways for them to play outside [the region].

You think back to Jannillea Glasgow and Shanisha Hector, among others, who got the chance to go to Australia for a season. You’ve seen how it’s helped Glasgow. I’m not saying it’s all because she went to Australia, but she would have been given the opportunity to play more games, and this was when she wasn’t in the West Indies setup. She came straight from Tasmania and returned to the team. And now she scores points. I think it helped that she had the opportunity to play a few more games than the other girls.

If they don’t have international commitments, they have to play cricket. Going back home to train won’t be enough. I strongly believe they should play men’s cricket too. Historically, if you look at the players who have been our best, especially the hitters, they all played against men. When there is time, both those coming through the ranks and those already in the senior ranks should do so. It gives them a greater challenge and will likely accelerate their development.

You have your ear to the ground. Do you know of players who go the extra mile to improve their game and increase their chances of success?

Players may do this. I’ll tell you what, in Barbados I hold my players accountable. And I encourage them not to sit on their laurels and wait for the Territorial Boards or Cricket West Indies to support them in every facet. So I challenge them to spend their own money and pay someone. Pay someone to throw balls at you. Pay the money out of pocket to go to the gym and find a personal trainer, a nutritionist and whatever else you need to become a better athlete. I don’t know if the girls in the Caribbean do it.

Cricket West Indies has hired trajectory coaches in each of the territories. So players can feel like they don’t have to do it because they have access to the trajectory coaches. I’m not sure. But I’m with you. I think players should take responsibility for their own improvement and do everything they can to get better. And not just to get better and be the best or one of the best in the Caribbean. Because they always say, you’re the best player in the Caribbean and you only have an average of 25 or 27, and we’re still not winning, that means absolutely nothing. You have to look at what the best players in the world do. What do Laura Wolvaardt, Jemimah Rodrigues and Ellyse Perry do? What did Meg Lanning do? What does Hayley Matthews do?

And I’m sure Matthews is someone who invests in himself. Robert Samuels is her personal hitting coach, or at least has been for the past few years. And there were times when he came to Barbados to work with her. And whether or not the other girls are willing to invest in themselves and do the same, I don’t know.

What are your responsibilities as Women’s Cricket Officer at the Barbados Association?

I am tasked with improving women’s cricket, helping build its structure, providing more opportunities for girls to play and growing the game in the country. I have a very good relationship with many of the girls in Barbados, and people in the Caribbean still contact me. So if they are willing to listen, I give advice. And many of them are quite receptive. During the last CPL, I also had the opportunity to mentor the Guyana Amazon Warriors team. So I had the opportunity to work with girls from outside Barbados as well.

What was the nature of the conversation that led to your return to the Barbados team for last month’s domestic season?

Well, it had very little to do with what I could do on the field. I retired two years ago and in between I hardly played any cricket. But [the decision] was mainly about guidance. When the coach contacted me during the Bolivarian Games, he reminded me that Kycia and Kyshona Knight were both retired.

We discussed, and [based on] what happened in Peru, we realized that they were missing someone with experience who understood the game. Obviously they had hoped for contributions from me on the pitch, but it was more about guiding them (young players) and helping them understand the game.

I was very reluctant to play. I think I said no a few times, but when I thought about the impact I could have on the girls, at least in terms of understanding the game, we felt it was really important for me to go. I know some people say I was probably taking over from someone younger, but we felt like I was filling in for one of the players who had just walked away.

And even though Barbados didn’t win this year, we are in a better place. I think you will see Barbados dominate women’s cricket in the region again in the coming years. But what I really want to see is just good cricket in general, because if Barbados wins, Jamaica wins or Trinidad wins, it doesn’t really matter if West Indian cricket still fails. So I hope I’ve had an impact on the girls who go on to play for the West Indies at some point.

Looking at the progress of women’s cricket in the Caribbean after winning the 2016 ICC T20 World Cup, are you disappointed?

Very disappointed. And I would have been disappointed when I was still playing. We felt like the girls weren’t getting enough support or playing enough cricket. [Coming] I think we missed an opportunity in 2016 to really boost women’s cricket. And you would have hoped that there would have been more age group competitions by now. Cricket West Indies have just announced that they have postponed the Under-16 Girls tournament until 2027. And that’s if all goes well financially.

Last year I was very happy when CWI finally decided to separate the domestic competitions, giving the players more playing time. But because of the financial situation, it’s back to how it used to be. But yes, after winning that World Cup you expected better performances.

Teams used to say that you can never write off a West Indian team. It was Sophie Devine or Suzie Bates who said you never knew which West Indies team would turn up. And while that meant to me that there was still a bit of fear in the back of their minds, it also meant that they always expected to dominate us in a series.

After the 2016 World Cup, you wanted to see our cricket improve and our players start to dominate, with more of them playing franchise cricket. It’s good to see Chinelle Henry, but you want to hear more West Indian names. More often than not, you want to hear about West Indies beating teams like South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. You want Australia to want to play the West Indies more often.

Without this Future Tours programme, West Indies would probably still not be playing Australia. I think West Indies only played two series against Australia in my playing career, which I think is because they probably didn’t feel we were competitive enough.

Things have changed. Off the field, more girls have now been contracted. There are franchise contracts. There are girls on the ‘A’ team who all have contracts. They have single rooms and now fly business class. So off the field there are some improvements, but how much influence these things have on the girls getting better on the field is the question.

Contracts are one thing, but more needs to be done. And it will be challenging in this financial situation. So it’s disappointing to see that we haven’t really grown since 2016. Maybe things are improving… very, very, very slowly.