THE continued growth of women’s cricket in Jersey received a huge and exciting boost when it was announced it would host the first ever ICC Women’s T20 World Cup European Division 2 qualifier.
The tournament is scheduled to be held on 27 May to 3 June with Jersey battling it out against Germany, France, Sweden, Italy and Turkey for a place in the top two and promotion to Division One, where Netherlands and Scotland await.
The ultimate goal is a place at the Women’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in 2024.
Jersey were approached by the ICC to stage the tournament after the original hosts, France, pulled out and head coach Lee Meloy said there has been a lot of hard work over the past two weeks to make it happen.
‘We’re really excited about what this event is going to bring,’ said Meloy.
‘It’s a combination of a few years hard work for our players and the backroom staff, the board and everyone involved in women’s cricket.
‘It’s created an opportunity that we didn’t think was possible and now it’s just about capitalising on it and looking playing a home tournament with ICC cricket and promotion on the line.’
Jersey women got its first taste of ICC tournament cricket when they beat Spain, Austria and the hosts France
in a quadrangular last summer and Meloy is full of confidence his squad can achieve promotion on home soil in the same way the men qualified for 50-over World Cup qualifier play-off last year.
‘We’re really looking to use this as a legacy event to push forward in the future with more fantastic opportunities,’ he added.
‘They’ve put in the hard work and we’re very confident going into the tournament that we can put on some good performances. We’ve got a young squad which does bring a bit inexperience with it but it can also have plenty of positives which means they’ve got a bit of bravery and they go into it head on.’
