Behind the success of West Indies men were women

Kolkata: As the saying goes...Behind every successful man is a woman. It would not be wrong to say that ‘behind the success of the West Indies men’s team was also the support of their women’s team’.

Ahead of the men’s triumph, the women lifted the Twenty20 World Cup shocking the Australians at Eden Gardens. All of them then stayed back to support the men’s team. And when the men pulled off an unbelievable victory, the women players too ran onto the field to celebrate the victory.

Stafanie Taylor is said to have been in touch with the men’s team, especially West Indies men’s team skipper Darren Sammy, and they constantly encouraged each other. “We had great support from the men. When we won the semi-final, Sammy said to everyone that we needed to go and have a drink and celebrate, so we had a celebration. Face-to-face interaction was less since we were far away (in different cities); but we stayed in touch through text messaging, and everyone told us the same thing - to go out there and do our best,” said Taylor.

In fact, Sammy is said to have messaged Taylor the day before that they would win. So after she lifted the women’s World Cup trophy one hour before the men’s finals commenced, she said: “I’m very confident that the guys are going to do well. We’ve been talking to them and they have this focus, which we’ve had too. We’ve been focused and vibrant at training yesterday and we just wanted to go out there and do well.”

To conquer four-time finalists Australia, having never beaten them before in Twenty20 Internationals, was made possible through sheer determination. Taylor is still dazed at the fact that her team has done it. “When we wake up in the morning tomorrow, there’ll be no cricket to play, and when I see my trophy I’m going to ask myself if this is real. I think it will all hit us only after we touch down in the Caribbeans. I know there will be a lot of people there and cameras and everything. That’s when we’re actually going to get the feeling that we’ve won a World Cup.”

Taylor was also delighted with the support she got in India. “It was good to see the crowd today. There were a lot of West Indies fans and it was fantastic to see them cheering and shouting. They were behind us and were supporting us, which also helped us to go forward.”