Cricket West Indies (CWI) CEO Johnny Grave has hailed the upcoming women’s England tour as a good way for the region to ‘kick start’ the women’s program.

The men’s program restarted under similar circumstances when the team became one of the first to resume playing international cricket, with its tour against England last month.  With the women’s inactive for the entire period, concerns were raised regarding a need to keep them engaged and active.

With South Africa pulling out of the tour, due to prevailing concerns regarding the coronavirus pandemic, the regional team was invited to fill the spot.

“It’s similar to the men in as much as the ECB has said they understand the financial position that we are in and they have agreed to pick up the cost.  So, this provides us with the best opportunity to restart our women’s program,” Grave told the Mason and Guest radio show.

“With the Guyana and Trinidad borders shut, getting the women together has been impossible.  They haven’t been training since March, since they returned from the World T20 in Australia.  This provides us with the opportunity to have three weeks of training camp prior to a couple of weeks’ worth of games.  We are playing five international T20s.  So, it really has kickstarted our women’s program, which we have been trying to do.”