ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – Crick­et West In­dies (CWI) has an­nounced the West In­dies U-19 Women’s team for the ICC Un­der-19 Women’s T20 World Cup, set to take place in Malaysia from Jan­u­ary 18 to Feb­ru­ary 2, 2025.

The tour­na­ment marks a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone for the re­gion’s ris­ing stars, pro­vid­ing an in­valu­able plat­form to com­pete against the best emerg­ing tal­ent world­wide.

CWI Di­rec­tor of Crick­et, Miles Bas­combe, laud­ed the team’s se­lec­tion.“Cap­tain Sama­ra Ram­nath and Vice-Cap­tain Asabi Cal­len­der will lead a tal­ent­ed squad that show­cas­es the depth of tal­ent across the Caribbean. This team ex­em­pli­fies the po­ten­tial of women’s crick­et in our re­gion, and we are con­fi­dent they will per­form ad­mirably on the glob­al stage.”

There are four play­ers from T&T on the team Keni­ka Cas­sar, Bri­an­na Har­richa­ran, Am­ri­ta Ram­ta­hal and cap­tain Ram­nath.

The event will fea­ture 16 teams, with match­es held across var­i­ous Malaysian venues. Tra­di­tion­al pow­er­hous­es like Aus­tralia, Eng­land, and In­dia will join re­gion­al qual­i­fiers such as Nepal, Nige­ria, Samoa, Scot­land, and the Unit­ed States. No­tably, it will be Samoa’s and Malaysia’s first ap­pear­ance at this lev­el.

The West In­dies have been placed in Group A, along­side In­dia, Sri Lan­ka, and host na­tion Malaysia. The top three teams from each group will progress to the Su­per 6 phase, with semi­fi­nals set for Jan­u­ary 31 and the grand fi­nale on Feb­ru­ary 2 at the Bayue­mas Oval.

The squad has un­der­gone rig­or­ous prepa­ra­tion, in­clud­ing spe­cial­ized train­ing camps at the Coolidge Crick­et Ground. Head coach Robert Samuels ex­pressed con­fi­dence in the team.

“Our play­ers have shown tremen­dous growth and com­mit­ment. We are ex­cit­ed to see them rep­re­sent the West In­dies with pride and pas­sion.”

The team will al­so en­gage in a pre-tour­na­ment camp in Malaysia start­ing Jan­u­ary 5, fol­lowed by warm-up match­es against Nepal and New Zealand.

WEST IN­DIES SQUAD

Sama­ra Ram­nath (Cap­tain), Asabi Cal­len­der (Vice-Cap­tain), Abi­gail Bryce, Keni­ka Cas­sar, Jahzara Clax­ton, Denel­la Creese, Nai­Jan­ni Cum­ber­batch, Erin Deane, Ami­ah Gilbert, Tr­isha Har­dat, Bri­an­na Har­richa­ran, Am­ri­ta Ram­ta­hal, Se­le­na Ross, Kris­ten Suther­land, Aaliyah Weekes.

Re­serves: Di­coreya Col­ly­more, Krisanne How­ell, Aneisha Miller, Danielle Manns, Lau­rene Williams.

Man­age­ment Unit: Head Coach: Robert Samuels, As­sis­tant Coach­es: Shane Brooks, Tremayne Smart, Phys­io­ther­a­pist: Ash­ley Stephens, Strength & Con­di­tion­ing Coach: Yvonne Arthur, Team Man­ag­er: Meris­sa Aguillera, Team Doc­tor: Dr. Joanne Ra­goo­nanan.

MATCH SCHED­ULE

Jan­u­ary 19: West In­dies vs In­dia

Jan­u­ary 20: West In­dies vs Sri Lan­ka

Jan­u­ary 25: West In­dies vs Malaysia

(CMC)