Robert Samuels appointed West Indies women's team for series against Ireland

St. John's (Antigua), June 23 (IANS) Cricket West Indies (CWI) has appointed Robert Samuels as the Interim Head Coach for the West Indies Women's team for the upcoming white-ball series against Ireland in St. Lucia.

The white-ball series against Ireland will involve One-day International (ODI) Series and West Indies T20 International (T20I)

Samuels, a former Jamaica captain and West Indies batsman played six Test matches and eight ODIs in addition to 106 first-class matches and 77 List A matches. His most recent role was as an Assistant Coach with the West Indies Women's team.

Speaking on Samuels' appointment, CWI's High-Performance Manager Graeme West said: "Robert brings continuity and stability to get the team through this period. He has great knowledge of the players and the women's game in general and strong knowledge of the support staff, so it's almost a seamless transition with Robert coming in as Interim Head Coach."

"He has his own ideas and is trying to implement them now as Interim Head Coach as opposed to assistant coach. He has made a good impact and start over the last few days and I'm sure it will continue throughout the series," Graeme West was quoted as saying in a press release on Thursday.

The Interim Assistant Coaches are former West Indies spin bowler, Ryan Austin and Steve Liburd, the former Leeward Islands batsman and captain. Liburd is the head coach of the West Indies U19 Rising Stars.

The West Indies 18-member squad is presently at a training camp at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground in St. Lucia where they are preparing to face Ireland Women in the three-match ODI Series which starts on Monday. This will be followed by the three-match T20I Series from July 4 to 8.

The matches are West Indies Women's only home fixture in 2023. The three ODIs comprise West Indies' third fixture in the ICC Women's Championship where they are pushing to win points to achieve a top-five position to qualify automatically for the ICC 2025 Women's Cricket World Cup.

Match Schedule:

All matches are to be played at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground, St. Lucia:

ODI Series:

June 26: 1st ODI

June 28: 2nd ODI

July 1: 3rd ODI

T20I Series:

July 4: 1st T20I

July 6: 2nd T20I

July 8: 3rd T20I