Barbados women's team to represent West Indies at Birmingham Commonwealth Games

St John’s (Antigua): The Barbados women’s side will participate in next year’s Commonwealth Games as West Indies’ “representative team”, Cricket West Indies (CWI) has announced. The announcement came after the CWI Board of Directors decided to postpone the T20 Blaze and Women’s Super50 Cup, which was to be the West Indies qualifying tournament for the CWG, until next year. [caption id=“attachment_9888271” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  File image of West Indies women team. Image: ICC Media[/caption] “Following the postponement, the Barbados Women’s team will be the representative team from the West Indies as a result of their victory in the 2020 CWI T20 Blaze tournament and in line with Commonwealth Games Association Tournament rules agreed by the International Cricket Council (ICC),” CWI said in a statement. Cricket will be making a return to the CWG for the first time since 1998 with women’s cricket set to be introduced in the 2022 Birmingham edition. The decision to postpone the regional women’s tournaments was taken after ODI and T20I dates for the West Indies vs South Africa series, from August 31 to September 19, was finalised. The ongoing logistical challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic requiring multiple teams to be hosted in one country was also taken into account. “…we have been forced to take the decision to postpone the Women’s T20 Blaze and Women’s CG Insurance Super50 Cup for this year,” CWI CEO Johnny Grave said. “We want to congratulate the Barbados Women’s team for being named to represent the West Indies in the Commonwealth Games 2022. “We wish them all the very best as they compete for the gold medal, and we know they will continue to do West Indies proud. Grave said the board has invested in several high performance camps and international fixtures for women.