 The second year of the WPL, Indian Cricket's premier T20 franchise for women, well, it's a mere four days away from starting and anticipation is at fever pitch. Live coverage of the tournament will be on Sportsmax starting at Friday, Friday 9 o'clock Jamaica time, that's AM, and 10 o'clock in the Eastern Caribbean, defending champions, Mumbai Indians with West Indies women's captain, Haley Matthews will open the tournament against Delhi Capitals in a repeat of last year's final. Matthews, the 2023 tournament MVP, will be the only West Indies representative in this year's edition. The 25-year-old will be hoping to build on a successful 2023, where she followed up her WPL MVP effort with stellar performances for the West Indies, which earned her the ICC Women's T20 International Cricket of the Year award. Earlier, we caught up with Matthews, who is already in India for the WPL. We are so close to the start of the women's premier league, the WPL in India. First of all, I gather you had a practice match earlier. How did that go? Yeah, not too bad. Got about 20 odd runs, so not terrible. But yeah, really looking forward to the start of the tournament is obviously the second-year running nose, so keen to get started on the 23rd. Yeah, that's on Friday. And of course, it will be live on Sportsmax. Talk to me about what the build-up has been like, how long you've been in India and what it's been like integrating with the Mumbai Indian setup. Yeah, well, I got here about five or six days ago, and it's been pretty cool. Had a couple training sessions, and like we mentioned, the practice match today, I think getting in and amongst the group pretty early is always good. And we've obviously got a lot of members of the team that would have been a part of the squad last year as well. So it's been smooth sailing so far. Great to come back and kind of see everyone and join with the team again. Yeah, just been pretty good so far. Right, and Haley, going into this season as defending champions, does that put any pressure on you and your team, or do you just feel as if you know, okay, we got it done so we can do it again this year? Yeah, I don't think so. I think we just want to go out there and start fresh again. I think looking at the teams, we know we've got a pretty solid squad. Or we just want to go out there and play some really good cricket. Everyone who's here has either been here for a while or at home playing a lot of cricket. So I think everyone's ready for the start of the competition. But yeah, I don't think it brings any pressure on us. We're just excited to get going now. How has it been working alongside India and Mumbai Indians captain Herman Preet Kaur? Yeah, it's been great. We've played on not only Mumbai Indian team last year, but we would have played with the Melbourne Renegades and the WBBL in Christmas of 2023 as well. So we've been able to form a really, really good relationship and she's a great girl on and off the field, which has been pretty cool to experience. So yeah, she's just a good chick overall and someone who's led this team really well in the 2023 season and I have no doubt who's going to go to leave from the front in 2024 too. Yeah, and the Mumbai Indians were already strong when I looked at the team on paper. And of course, you all are defending champions. But then I saw a surprise during the auction. You all got Shabnam Ishmael, one of my personal favorites. And I can't wait to see when she suits up for the Mumbai Indians. How excited are you to work alongside her? Yeah, that's another one of my friends who I would play with in many teams. I played together in the 100 at Welsh Fire and at the Big Bash for Melbourne Renegades the season ago as well. And I think someone like her, she brings so much experience to the team, but also so much fire. She plays with a lot of energy and a lot of skill and definitely adds to, I guess, the artillery of our team going into the beginning of the season. Yeah, and she's good energy. She's a vibe because last year during the CPL she was around the Ghana Amazon Warriors team with my sister of course. And the thing is Shabnam is somebody who's so confident. So I think that energy into our winning Mumbai Indian team is just perfect. Yeah, for sure. I think she adds in every aspect, not only on the field, but like you said, her confidence off the field, just the vibe she brings around the group. You know, the kind of jokes she makes, the fun she's able to have and the way she's able to jow at everyone so easily. She's come here and I think she's probably been here for seven or eight days and is like this with every single person on the team now. So it's just really good to have her in the group and I know she's going to bring a lot of positives towards it. Yeah, Helik, talk to us quickly about the Mumbai Indians franchise as a parent company because you know, they are five time champions of the men's IPL. We just saw last weekend them winning their international league T20 with Nicholas Puran and Andre Fletcher and company as a group, the Mumbai Indians. Can you talk to us about how solid the organization is? Yeah, they're great. One of the best franchises for sure, if not the best that I've been a part of. I think just the way that they treat us, the way that they take care of the players and the way that they're able to support us win or lose just gives us that back in every time we go out on the field. And I think when you look at the Mumbai Indians and their history within Cricket, you see that they've been able to win so many times and I think it has so much to do with the way that they treat and support the players 24-7. Yeah, and the fact that it's an opportunity for you as the leading player in West India's women's cricket at the moment to be a part of this big body and big group of franchise cricket, a little from my perspective, disappointed that there aren't more West Indians getting into this franchise setup to improve women's cricket in the Caribbean because there's no question Haley that being a part of this group and if more players are a part of a group like this, it can only benefit West India's cricket. Yeah, 100%. And I think the main goal for not the main goal, but a big goal for a lot of our players within the West Indies is not only to represent the West Indies as well, but to be able to get those and get inside of the franchise tournaments around the world. I speak personally for myself, I know how much it can help and how much experience it can give you. But at the same time, with that being said, I think it starts to performances. But the girls have been working really hard. We just came out of a three week camp in Antigua where we saw so many improvements, got the opportunity to play some T10 cricket. I really get the girls up in their square rates, which in those of these going to help us in the T20 format as well. Yeah, do you have any targets Haley for your sojourn in this coming women's Premier League in India? Score doesn't take rickets. I think that's the main thing I try and go and do every time. I don't reckon I have any big numbers put donors yet. But at the same time, look, I obviously had a great season last year, as well as a great 2023 on a whole. Yeah, I don't want to put too much pressure on myself. Just go to bat my skills. I've been working really hard over the Christmas season and in the camp in January in Antigua and yeah, just ready to go and hopefully I can start off really well and put on some good performances. Yeah, Haley, when you become ICC Women's T20 International Player of the Year, does it change your mindset any at all? How does it impact the way you move forward, if any at all? I think the mindset that I had in 2023 is probably what got me the award and that was taking up responsibility and trying to play really positive cricket walls back in my game and I feel as though I'm going to try to emulate that as much as I can in 2024. And if there's areas that I can find to do even better than improving, I'm just trying to take off some more boxes. Yeah, just speaking about the West Indus team, I look at your history and I see that you captained your school team, your boys' school team at 11 years old and I thought to myself that makes a lot of sense. I want to get an understanding of that aspect of your development and how much you would encourage young players coming through to play with boys as early as possible and how much that can help in your development. Yeah, honestly I think playing with boys from a young age is probably the best thing to happen for me and I don't think it's pulling away from the female programs that we have in the Caribbean but at the time, since they're still going through a phase of developing and getting better, for me playing with the boys helped me to face faster bowlers, helped me to bowl against boys who were much stronger and develop my game a lot quicker. I remember playing on the 19 cricket as a 15-year-old girl and Joe for Archer was bowling from one end and Jerome Jones was bowling from the other. So I for sure encourage girls to go out and play with boys once they're comfortable in the environment while still keeping the ladies cricket around and trying to play that as much as possible too. I think at a young age the best thing for you to be able to do is play as much cricket as possible and that's certainly what I did when I was growing up because of how much I loved to play the game. How did you get those opportunities and was there ever a point when you were discouraged from doing it? I think it was just through the school system mainly. I started out at primary school from the under 11 level and just went straight through to under 19s within my secondary school and I did face some challenges going through when it came to opportunities with playing with the boys but at the same time you know I think all those kinds of things have not only helped me on the field but helped my character develop not off the field as well. You spoke earlier about the West Indies and the camp that you had. What have you been seeing to the girls in terms of where you ultimately want them to get and how much did that latest camp help in that aspect? Just being able to have a lot of those conversations in a tight group, unit. I think for us it's just about understanding where we want to be, understanding where we're at right now and how we get to the next level. We know obviously whether competing against teams like England and Australia we haven't had the best results in the recent past but at the same time we're very very keen to keep working on our game. Everyone is driven to get better and want to be better and I think for us that's the main thing, everyone buying into the culture and everyone buying into us, taking new steps forward and looking at new approaches so I think it's really good for us to have that as a group and the girls have been so good with that new culture and adapting to it really well. Hales, whenever I interview any of the Wendy's women's players and I ask about you, as in how is it working with you as a captain, one of the responses that I get often is that you're so cool and calm and easy to talk to, they feel as if you're always in their corner so they're not pressured because they know that you're going to back them, you're going to support them. You however are younger than a lot of some of the players that you captain. Has that been difficult, you know your age speaking to these players and of course giving them advice or do you feel because of your performances because you've been leading with the bat and the ball, it helps to gain respect from the ladies. I think I came into the team a long time ago, this is my type here, no playing for the West Indies and I would have been able to build relationships with so many of the girls, even in ones older than me and I think because of the relationship I've been able to have been along them as well as the performances I've been able to gain a lot of their respect and I think the thing about it is that a lot of them supported me as a young kid growing up within the team, it helped me to learn a lot and is the same way now when Stefani passed over the torch to me as the captain, I had nothing but support from her and it's been that way with every single senior player in the squad which I've been really grateful for. Haley, I remember I think it was about 2015 that you won a Javelin gold medal at the Carifter Games, some years ago I remember Deandra Dottin saying that she was trying to train for the Olympics in the Javelin. Haley Mathews, does she ever wonder what could have been if she went another route? I think Haley Mathews right now has a dodgy shoulder from throwing a cricket ball so I'm not sure how it would have gone if I had it kept with Javelin much longer. How much did you like track and field though as you clearly you're a fantastic athlete and clearly you love cricket what was your love for track and field like? I think I enjoyed doing it for a lot of reasons that I kid was you know I was good at it I was being successful in the Javelin and then I was getting to travel to a lot of places around the world and meet a lot of new people and get opportunities as well but I think at the same time without being said I had a love for cricket that was something that was undeniable and I guess when it came to track and field I didn't exactly have the same urge of wanting to do it for the rest of my life and I think from the time it was 11 or 12 years old I knew a cricketer was what I wanted to be so for me there was never any real dope around picking if I wanted to do cricket or track and field honestly. At 25 years old are you still in love with cricket in the same way you were as that 11 year old who was playing against boys? It has its ups and downs that was one thing I could say for sure but at the same time it's a sport where when you hit the peak and you're doing well there's no better feeling than the success that the game of cricket can bring you. I think what I love about it as well which has recently come about over the last few years is the opportunity I've had as well to inspire so many young kids girls boys even adults around the world I think has been a massive thing for me and to see all the support that I've gotten from around the Caribbean and around the world as well and I just want to continue to have the opportunity to inspire. Do you feel that love when you travel around the Caribbean? Yeah for sure I think it's something that's grown a lot over the last say two years or so and I would say that in other areas of the world India of course the love is super overwhelming because of the amount of funds but I can't say in the Caribbean it's something that's getting better and better. You're seeing so many more supporters coming out I think in the CPL this year the numbers that we had when we played the finals in Trinidad we saw it was pretty much a solo crowd that was there by the second half of the game which was crazy to see because I think the men's game didn't start until two hours after ours was finished so I guess for that people had to deliberately come in for our match so to see the support around the Caribbean growing is quite great and I know it's got a long way to go but all small steps and it's going in the right direction for sure. Right and as you speak about that support with the successes of the ladies came that MOU that was signed recently between WEPA and of course CWI we had the signing right here in our studio and Haley I know you've been leasing with the CWI president you've been having the conversations on behalf of the ladies how do you feel about that you know the plant of course you know have gender equity when it comes to pay and benefits for the ladies because for quite some time and I remember when you all just started playing cricket basically playing just for fun just for the love of it now of course cricket for women has become an actual job where you can just focus on cricket and you can earn a proper living. Yeah for sure I think the girls are pretty happy to see what CWI have put forward for us it definitely shows that they're paying a lot more attention to women's cricket and it also gives the ladies a better opportunity to make a good living for themselves but at the same time invest further in themselves get personal trainers work on their bodies get their supplements right so it gives the ladies a lot of opportunity as well to improve their game by just having access I guess more funds we hear someone like the Brown James speak about how much money he spends on his body a year over a hundred thousand dollars just getting the right supplements and getting himself in in shape with the right diet and the right training and the girls have a better opportunity to do that now. Yeah a quick comment before you go Haley on the growth of women's cricket in the Caribbean because we know that some of the stalwarts have gone Anisa Muhammad, Deandra Dottin has retired, Stefani Taylor is towards the back end of her career and we are constantly looking for new stars to rise at the moment you are pretty much single-handedly carrying that burden I looked at the Windward Islands women's championship the T20 and 50 over tournament that ended last weekend the Jamaica domestic league is on at the moment I saw Rashada Williams on television this weekend talking but I looked at some of the stats coming from the windwards tournament Pearl Etienne was the leading run getter she's 41 years old your spin partner Affi Fletcher got some runs along with taking some wickets as well but we wanted to see the Zeta James's and players like those rise and how how satisfied are you with the growth of some of these young players and how much can fans expect to see them fast-track and develop quickly to get up to speed of international cricket it's a work in progress and what I keep saying is I think with the programs that we've had in place over the last few years they obviously weren't the best and we can't keep expecting a whole lot of the girls who wouldn't necessarily have as much experience due to the fact that the programs they would have been in the training they would have began at the opportunities they would have been getting the matches they would have been getting to play over the last few years probably haven't been as great as we would have wanted to when you go to places like Australia and England and you look at their system and their structure you can understand why they have players coming through the works every single year and that's why I feel as though the tournament like the CPL is so crucial I think we saw massive improvement in the standard of the tournament from year one to year two and I think jumps like that are going to continue to happen once CWR put the measures in place. Yeah Hayley Mathews it's been an absolute pleasure speaking with you I know it's just 10 minutes after one in the morning where you are in Mumbai so I suspect you will want to get some rest now so we really appreciate you stopping by and chatting with us all the best in the WPL and we'll be watching every single game you're involved with on SportsMax. Thanks for having me guys. All right Hayley Mathews. Yeah so I suspect Riccardo you won't be the only person watching every single ball in the WPL because it's going to be exciting and it will be on SportsMax. Yeah really looking forward to watching the WPL I am a bit disappointed as we expressed in that interview with Hayley that they are not other West Indies woman players for us to watch and share on but for me I have a couple of favorites and in RCB there's the young Sriyanka Patil that you saw playing for the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the CPL she's somebody I love watching I think she's going to make a mark as well she's on the RCB team so I'm kind of torn because I like Sriyanka but of course our very own Hayley is on Mumbai Indians along with Shabnam Ishmael so last night I was speaking to my sister and she's like hello it's Hayley we're supporting Hayley so we're going with Mumbai Indians it's our family executive decision so Mumbai Indians and Hayley all the way yeah you too yeah yeah that's the thing about the West Indies woman y'all should I give us some other teams to support man it would have been a lot more fun right yes it would be but that's okay it doesn't take away from the excitement we're really looking forward to Friday right here on your home of champions and we look forward to bringing you that coverage we'll take a break we'll be back