Once the right precautionary measures are taken, I would be happy to play, says Hayley Matthews

“Once the right precautionary measures are taken. Obviously, it is a time when you have to think about safety first," she told Barbados Today. "But I don’t think the board or boards would look to put us in any danger. Once it is a matter that the right precautionary measures are taken and our safety is put first I don’t think it would be a huge problem."

While Matthews admitted that the lack of cricket through this period was slightly frustrating, she is grateful for the time she has had to introspect and set new goals moving ahead.

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“When you play a game in cricket, you always want to be improving, so whether it be batting, bowling, fielding, I am always looking to get better. Obviously, because of everything that has been going on, it delays that next step. I think sometimes it is a good thing in cricket when you just get that little break to kind of refocus and mentally get yourself back into it. Hopefully, when I go out there again, I could be right back into nick and doing better than I was before,” Matthews said.

While athletes around the world have been constantly searching for ways to keep fit - renting gym equipment and finding innovative ways to get some weight training in - Matthews said she has had no such problem, with Cricket West Indies assisting the players along the way.

“It has been pretty alright, to be honest. The main thing for me I guess is to try to stay motivated. We have been given a program by our trainer at Cricket West Indies that I think the entire team has been working on at this point. For us, it is about making sure we get in the workouts obviously."



“A lot of the countries are different now at this time. Different rules, different regulations, so for us here in Barbados we knew we had the lockdown over the past couple weeks, so the nets were not available. But it is about getting in those workouts."

“Our trainers give us some gym equipment to buy that we went ahead and got, that we could get those workouts done. And even the workouts that he gave us, a lot of them were bodyweight, stuff that we were able to do.”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, West Indies were scheduled to host South Africa in a six-match limited overs series ahead of the ICC Women's World Cup qualifier in Sri Lanka in July. However, both series have been postponed.

Additionally, both Matthews and West Indies skipper Stafanie Taylor had been signed up to play in England and Wales Cricket Board's new competition 'The Hundred'.

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On the domestic front, the 22-year-old was expected to captain Barbados as they set out to defend their one-day crown. However, a week before the team was to leave for Guyana to kick off their campaign, CWI was forced to cancel the tournament.

“The girls were into a lot of training, so it is a bit unfortunate it got cancelled when it did. But as I said safety first."

Despite the rearranged schedules, the right-hander said she is hopeful that cricket will get underway soon, starting with the Women's Big Bash League in Australia.

“We are hoping that obviously the next couple of months everywhere is able to open back up and hopefully we can get to the Big Bash in Australia (October),” she concluded.