The women’s national cricket team are to compete in the newly-created Under-16 league this summer in an effort to play as many games as possible before their World Cup qualifiers later in the year.

The technical advisor on women’s cricket for the International Cricket Council in the Americas region, Anne Brown-John, has been on the Island for the last few days working with the ladies and advising Bermuda Cricket Board on what is required to raise the standard of women’s cricket across the Island.

The former West Indies and Trinidad and Tobago captain said that from her perspective there was “plenty of talent” on display — before warning it would take time, money, practice and more importantly games for there to be any significant improvement.

The Board’s decision to enter the women’s team into the Under-16 league is a direct result of this recommendation, though in the long term Browne-John said women’s cricket would wither and die unless it was played in the schools.

“It’s crucial that cricket is played in the schools by girls,” she said yesterday.

“No sport can be strong if it’s not . . . and that will certainly be one of my main recommendations to the Board at the end of the trip.

“I’ve had a few opportunities to work with the squad both out on the field and in the classroom and from what I can see there’s some good players there.

“As you will know though, women’s cricket only really started to get organised on the Island last year and what is obvious is that they are going to have to play a lot more games and train together a lot more if the standard is going to get better.

“Little by little women’s cricket is growing around the world. There are something like two million women cricketers in England and around 50,000 in Australia.

“The ICC has put a lot of money into its development plans and now there are funds available for people like myself to travel around to different countries and help them get their women’s programmes off the ground.”

Women’s team coach Allan Douglas was looking forward to guiding the squad through their busy summer of competition.

“What has been highlighted by Ann, and has been a concern of ours for some time, is that the women’s team does not have regular and competitive fixtures, which as we all know is imperative in order to make any form of improvement,” he said.

“The inclusion of the women’s team is just what we have been looking for . . . I know that cricket for women is very new to Bermuda and so this will give us the opportunity to show the public that we are serious and play serious cricket.

It is exciting for us that we are also beginning to see girls come up the ranks with an all-girls side being fielded in the Hiscox Under-10 League.

“Everything begins with small steps and this is just another example of how we are definitely heading in the right direction.”

The Women’s World Cup qualifiers are to be held in Lahore, Pakistan this November, with the World Cup proper to be held two years later.