Henry lavishes praise on Chamari Athapaththu as Barbados Royals gear up for another WCPL Final and Title no.3.
The Barbados Royals will be in the middle, aiming for their third consecutive championship in the Women’s Caribbean Premier League (WCPL), which is in its fourth season. The final is scheduled for Wednesday morning in Providence.
There are only three teams in the competition, but the Royals had been the dominant force, reaching all four finals. As a result, “there was a lot riding on it” when the WCPL started and the Royals missed usual captain Hayley Matthews. She was sidelined due to a shoulder ailment, leaving Chinelle Henry in the hot seat.
Henry on Hayley Matthews
“When she [Matthews] called me and asked me to be captain [because] she wasn’t going to be available, it was quite like, ‘yeah, just give me a moment to think about that’,” Henry said before taking on Guyana Amazon Warriors, the only team not to have won the title. Trinbago Knight Riders were the inaugural champions in 2022.
“But I guess when [Matthews] asked, she was like, ‘you probably could be that person, because you have been around the team all the seasons before, as a senior player in the squad’, [despite] all the overseas players that we’ve had and even the captain in her own right in Chamari Athapaththu, who’s been brilliant helping me in the field in terms of decision-making and stuff like that.
“Hayley is a big character, both on and off the field, and she has done a lot for us as a franchise. I think the girls have really stepped up. We’re in our fourth final, so that’s really something to talk about.
“So far, the way we have been in the group games, there’s still a few areas to tighten up, but I think we are ready to compete in that final.”
Henry on Chamari
With 169 runs in four innings and seven wickets (second only to Amazon Warriors’ Laura Harris, who has eight), Athapaththu has been the big star for the Royals, leading the run-scorers’ list by 15 runs. Although Henry and Qiana Joseph have contributed, it has occasionally been a one-woman performance.
“We have a lot of big characters in this group, and she is very passionate, and she loves what she does,” Henry said of Athapaththu. “To be the opener for this team and constantly coming up with runs for us and in the middle, when we are bowling, you can call on her and be like, we need to break a partnership or something, which happens, you know.
“She is that person, you know, whenever you call on her, she puts up her hand and is ready to perform and is ready to do her all for the team. With somebody like her, a lot of us, a lot of the younger ones that we have, we really look to her in terms of advice, how she plays, how she thinks when she goes out, and she keeps it simple.”