USA Women’s Under-19 team now in T&T for the Cricket West Indies Rising Stars T20 Championship

Durrant Pate/Contributor

Former West Indies middle order batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul has been appointed as head coach of the USA Women’s Senior and Under-19 teams.

The appointment takes effect immediately and the 47-year-old Chanderpaul will take charge as the USA Women’s Under-19 team departed for the Caribbean on Sunday for the Cricket West Indies Under-19 Rising Stars T20 Championship. The competition will take place from today (July 5) to July 13 in Trinidad and Tobago.

Chanderpaul, who is based in Orlando, Florida in the United States, is currently the head coach of the Caribbean Premier League side, Jamaica Tallawahs and recently served as the batting consultant for the Under-19 West Indies Men’s team for the Under-19 Men’s Cricket World Cup 2022. His one-and-a-half year contract will expire at the end of 2023.

Commenting on the appointment, Chanderpaul said: “I am excited to have been appointed as the head coach of the USA National Women’s Team and Women’s Under-19 Team. The Women’s game is something I am a huge advocate of, and I have followed the progress of the USA Women’s National team with keen interest.”

Continuing, he added: “I’m really looking forward to using my 20-plus years of international cricket and my recent coaching experiences, to help the Women’s teams progress to World Cups in years to come, particularly the inaugural Under-19 Cricket World Cup in January. I’ve enjoyed being involved in American cricket over the years as a resident of Orlando, so to be given this opportunity to become the head coach for USA Cricket is an incredible one.”

INVALUABLE DEPTH OF EXPERIENCE

A Windies legend, Chanderpaul’s international career spanned more than 20 years. During that time, he played in 454 internationals, scoring 20,988 runs at an average of 45.72, which included 41 centuries and 125 half-centuries.

He is also one of the only two West Indies batsmen to score more than 10,000 Test runs. USA Cricket Operations Director Richard Done highlighted that the depth of experience Chanderpaul brings would be invaluable.

According to him, “we are thrilled to have attracted someone of Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s calibre to work with both the Women’s Senior and Under-19 teams as Women’s Head Coach, and lead them onto the global stage. We have an exciting crop of young cricketers, of which many are already making their mark at senior level. Combining the two roles will provide coaching consistency across teams for those players as they develop”.