WI women face synthetic turf in Holland

The West Indies women’s cricket team left Trinidad and Tobago yesterday for Holland where they will have to come to terms on synthetic turf if they are to emerge one of the two qualifiers for the upcoming World Cup. Coach of the team Ann Browne-John said yesterday the team was confident of success. ”The girls had a hard ten- day camp here and really ironed out the little problems which has now given them a lot of confidence.” The regional team will be vying for one of the remaining two places available for the Women’s World Cup. At this tournament they will be competing against Pakistan, Ire-land, hosts Holland, Scotland and Japan. The matches will be spread around Ams-terdam, the country’s biggest city and Browne said from information it is still very very cold in Europe. “We have gotten word from the organisers of the tournament that West Indies will be playing in temperatures around 18 to 19 degrees Celsius. The Caribbean girls are unaccustomed with this coldness and we will have to do some adjusting when we arrive,” she said.

Browne also revea-led that the pitches will be of a synthetic nature and this will also be a factor in their play. We have little know-ledge of the synthetic pitches but we are not going across there to complain. We are going there to win this tournament so that we can advance to the World Cup. “We are confident that we can get past these teams and reach the World Cup that we played at in 1998,” she said. The West Indies finished eighth at the last Women’s World Cup in India under Browne as captain and hence have to go through a qualification phase. Recently the West Indies hosted World Cup qualifiers Sri Lanka and although they failed to win any of the matches they gave the visitors a run for their money. Browne said the team is a good all-round one and she is looking to the seniors to lead the way. One of the main weapons on the team will be the youngster Anisa Mohammed. The 14-year-old from Sangre Grande was drafted into the team after Vincentian Clea Hoyte got injured.
West Indies: Stephanie Power (captain), Nelly Williams, Shane DeSilva, Felicia Cummings, Neil Lashley, Envis Williams, Juliana Nero, Anisa Mohammed, Verena Felicien, Phillipa Thomas, Nadine Geroge, Doris Francis, Debbie Ann Lewis, Candacy Adkins and Indomatie Goordial. Ann Browne-John (coach) and Cinda Bobb (manager).