West Indies are defending champions of Women’s World T20. (Source: Shubham Dutta)
The US could host next Women’s World T20 with West Indies which is scheduled in November next year. Fara Gorsi, the ICC Americas development manager has suggested that the chances of matches being held in Florida are well over 50% according to a report in Cricbuzz.
“It’s something that we’re looking to do for sure,” said Gorsi. “In the Americas there’s a lack of women’s cricket – we have the USA team but we need to develop cricket, so having women’s cricket (event) featuring here as co-hosts would be massive kudos for ICC Americas and also for cricket in general for women,” she added.
Talking about the obstacles, Gorsi insisted that they have been able to hos Caribbean Premier League and T20Is so there shouldn’t be much problems in hosting the event.
“Obstacles? At this point in time I couldn’t see any,” said Gorsi. “As we’ve hosted the CPL and T20Is here, it’s not that the venue would be a problem. It’s logistically how the host countries work together to make this possible. As the ICC Americas development manager it’d be something that I would be very keen to get involved to make sure it does happen.”
Johnny Grave, the chief executive of Cricket Windies (CWI) has attended the CPL matches last weekend and he looked optimistic about the timing for a new association in USA.
“It’s the first time I’ve been here and why not? It’s not too far off the Caribbean Sea,” he said, speaking in Florida. “It could be the perfect timing for a new association in the USA to really kick-start cricket in the USA so I wouldn’t want to rule it out. It’s not been officially spoken about at the high end but I’d certainly be very open-minded in exploring it,” told Grave.
“I would like to think it was a well over 50% chance of us hosting it here,” Gorsi said. “But this is being ambitious and what I’d like to see.” She added that “four to six matches, possibly more,” of the 23-game event could be staged in Lauderhill.
Women’s cricket has been getting a lot of praise and appreciation especially after the successful conclusion of the World Cup 2017. Gorsi emphasised on enhancing women’s cricket in the Americas.
“We have to get women’s cricket over in the Americas at the level it’s being played in other regions at the moment,” said Gorsi. “We need to utilise the stage of women’s cricket, from what the girls did at Lord’s, over in the US so the whole of the Americas can see that it is possible, and we can have a women’s team grow and more girls getting involved in women’s cricket at a local level as well.”
