In 2026, the West In­dies Women’s crick­et team will cel­e­brate its Gold­en Ju­bilee (50 years).

Un­like their men’s coun­ter­part, who played their first Test match in 1928, the West In­dies women crick­eters played their first Test in 1976, the same year the team was formed. Pri­or to the for­ma­tion of the West In­dies women’s team in 1976, Ja­maica and T&T com­pet­ed sep­a­rate­ly in the in­au­gur­al Women’s Crick­et World Cup (60 overs) in Eng­land in 1973.

T&T fin­ished fifth in the sev­en-team tour­na­ment with eight points—played six, won two, lost four—and Ja­maica fin­ished sixth with five points—played six, won one, lost four, No Re­sult in one. The tour­na­ment was won by Eng­land, who fin­ished on 20 points, fol­lowed by Aus­tralia (17 points).

The two Test match­es against Aus­tralia took place in Ja­maica, and both were drawn. The his­toric West In­dies team for the first Test match (3 days) at Mon­tego Bay, May 6-9, 1976, ac­cord­ing to the bat­ting or­der, was:

• Louise Browne (T&T, cap­tain, open­ing bat­ter)

• Jas­mine Sam­my (T&T, open­ing bat­ter)

• Glo­ria Gill (Bar­ba­dos, bat­ter)

• Vi­va­lyn Lat­ty-Scott (Ja­maica, all­rounder, bat­ter and off-break bowler)

• Bev­er­ly Browne (T&T, bat­ter)

• Pa­tri­cia Whit­tak­er (Bar­ba­dos, all­rounder, bat­ter and right-arm medi­um-fast bowler)

• Meno­ta Tekah (T&T, bat­ter)

• Janet Mitchell (Bar­ba­dos, wick­et-keep­er)

• Leila Grace Williams (Ja­maica, all­rounder, bat­ter, and right-arm medi­um-fast bowler)

• El­li­cent “Peg­gy” Fair­weath­er (Ja­maica, right-arm medi­um- fast bowler)

• Sh­eryl Bay­ley (Bar­ba­dos, off-break bowler)

Louise Browne won the toss and bat­ted. She and Jas­mine Sam­my (41 runs) record­ed an open­ing part­ner­ship of 84 runs, which is the high­est open­ing part­ner­ship in all 12 West In­dies Test match­es to date. Browne top­scored with 67 runs (first West In­di­an male or fe­male to score a Test 50, Joe Small scored 52 in the sec­ond in­nings of the first Test against Eng­land in 1928). The high­est score by a West In­di­an bat­ter on de­but is by wick­et­keep­er Na­dine George, 118 in the sec­ond in­nings of the on­ly Test against Pak­istan in 2004. It was the last Test match the West In­dies played.

Oth­er con­tri­bu­tions came from Leila Williams, 36, Pa­tri­cia Whit­tak­er, 30, Bev­er­ly Browne, 29, Peg­gy Fair­weath­er, 23 not out and Vi­va­lyn Lat­ty-Scott, 20, as the West In­dies in­nings end­ed on 282 runs off 112.5 overs. Bowl­ing for Aus­tralia, Marie Cor­nish took four wick­ets for 48 runs with her off-breaks.

In re­ply, Aus­tralia fin­ished on eight wick­ets for 268 runs off 119 overs. Open­er Lor­raine Hill made 73, sup­port­ed by Wendy Hills with 35, Sharon Tre­drea 34, fel­low open­er and wick­et-keep­er Mar­garet Jen­nings, 30 and Jan Lums­den, 27.

Vi­va­lyn Lat­ty-Hall led the West In­dies bowl­ing with im­pres­sive fig­ures of five wick­ets for 48 runs off 41 overs with 17 maid­ens. Her econ­o­my rate was 1.17. She is the first West In­di­an play­er male or fe­male to take five wick­ets in Test crick­et.

The sec­ond Test match was played in Kingston May 14-16, 1976. No­ra St Rose, a right-arm medi­um-fast bowler from T&T and Yolande Ged­des-Hall, a wick­et-keep­er bat­ter from Ja­maica, made their de­buts. As in the first Test, Louise Browne won the toss and elect­ed to bat. The West In­dies made 226 all out in 134 overs. Pa­tri­cia Whit­tak­er top­scored with 61, ably-sup­port­ed by Sam­my 43, Ged­des-Hall 23, Louise Browne 20 and Meno­ta Tekah 22. As in the first Test, Marie Cor­nish was the lead bowler tak­ing five for 51 runs with her off-breaks in 37 overs with 15 maid­ens.

In re­ply, Aus­tralia was bowled out for 218 runs in 121.3 overs, con­ced­ing an eight-run lead to the West In­dies. Janette Tre­drea top­scored with 43, fol­lowed by Jan Lums­den 42, Lor­raine Hill 40, and Mar­garet Jen­nings 27. Off-break spin­ners Vi­va­lyn Lat­ty-Scott, three wick­ets for 36 runs in 33.3 overs, and Sh­eryl Bay­ley, three wick­ets for 70 runs in 38 overs were the main wick­et-tak­ers for the West In­dies.

Bat­ting a sec­ond time, the West In­dies fin­ished on three for 89 runs off 35 overs. Cap­tain Louise Browne reg­is­tered her sec­ond Test half-cen­tu­ry, fin­ish­ing un­beat­en 52, Pa­tri­cia Whit­tak­er was un­de­feat­ed in 15 and Meno­ta Tekah made 13. Bowl­ing for Aus­tralia, Anne Gor­don end­ed with two wick­ets for 18 runs.

The his­toric se­ries end­ed in a draw but laid the foun­da­tion for a six-match Test se­ries against an­oth­er Test debu­tant, In­dia, lat­er in 1976. In 2026, the West In­dies will mark their re­turn to Test crick­et since 2004 against the same op­po­nent it all start­ed with the num­ber one Test, ODI and T20 team—Aus­tralia.

It is ex­pect­ed that Crick­et West In­dies (CWI) will recog­nise the 13 play­ers who de­buted in the 1976 his­toric Test se­ries. The cel­e­bra­tions should in­clude giv­ing play­ers a cap to mark their chrono­log­i­cal num­ber (29 to date) when they de­buted for the West In­dies Women’s Test team. This will set the stage for the 11 play­ers mak­ing their Test de­but in 2026.