West Indies Women’s captain Hayley Matthews is hoping that the gap between her individual brilliance and the West Indies Women’s struggles as a team will be bridged soon.
The Bajan was speaking after being named both Women’s ODI and T20I Player of the Year at the eighth CWI/WIPA Awards Gala at the Wyndham Grand Barbados Sam Lord’s Castle on Sunday.
In ODIs, Matthews scored 156 runs in five matches at an average of 39.00 in 2023 before having a brilliant 2024, making 469 runs in seven innings at an average of 78.16 including three centuries.
She also took 14 wickets in those 12 matches.
In T20Is, she hit 700 runs in 14 innings at 63.63 in 2023 before following it up with 538 runs in 16 innings at 35.85 in 2024. She also picked up 33 wickets during that time.
Despite her individual excellence, the Women have lost ODI series to Australia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and England and South Africa during that time. Australia, India and England have also got the better of them in T20 series.
“Team success always comes first so I feel like I always just try to do as best as I can for the team and these accolades just tend to come about when I give my all to West Indies,” Matthews told CWI media officer Jerome Foster after collecting her awards on Sunday.
She noted that, while she makes the game look so easy, her success comes from a lot of time tirelessly working on her craft.
“It comes from a lot of hard work and dedication. Tonight, was obviously a night to honor all the people who have done really well for West Indies cricket throughout the years so I’m definitely humbled by the accolades and hopefully, I can have another big year and keep it going,” she said.
At the time of publishing, Matthews is currently 61* for the West Indies Women during the third and decisive T20I against South Africa at the 3Ws Oval in Barbados.
The team were 92-2 in the 13th over needing a further 56 runs from 45 balls.