Hayley Matthews, West Indies’ star all-rounder
The International Cricket Council has announced the first five players selected as 100% Cricket Superstars ahead of a historic month for women’s cricket, culminating in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Sophie Ecclestone (England), Amelia Kerr (New Zealand), Hayley Matthews (West Indies), Shafali Verma (India) and Laura Wolvaardt (South Africa) are the first crop of what will ultimately be a 100% Cricket Superstars squad that fans can pick from to decide on a final XI.
Here, we feature West Indies ace all-rounder Hayley Matthews. A senior cricketer for the Barbados women’s team at the age of 12, international debut for the West Indies at 16 – Hayley Matthews was always earmarked for greatness from the very beginning. A multi-talented athlete, Matthews was also a gifted javelin thrower but ended to up choosing cricket as her career path.
She made her international debut in 2014 in T20Is against New Zealand. A few months later, Matthews made a lasting impression on her ODI debut, scoring three fifties in consecutive matches. She finished as West Indies’ highest run-scorer in the series while also picking up three wickets with her handy off-spin.
In her first taste of the world stage at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, she was a vital cog in West Indies’ maiden triumph in 2016. Facing three-time Champions Australia in the final, Matthews took the game by the scruff of the neck, smashing a 45-ball 66 as she fired her team to the title. Ahead of the T20 World Cup in 2018, she was appointed the vice-captain of the West Indies side.
A regular in both the white-ball formats, Matthews has over 1000 runs and 55 wickets in each format – a feat only matched by Deandra Dottin and Stafanie Taylor for the West Indies.
Matthews put her name in the record books in 2019 when she was part of a record 162-run partnership with Chedean Nation against Ireland, which was then the second-highest stand for any wicket in T20I cricket history. She plundered 62-ball 107*, an innings laced with seven fours and nine sixes as she became the second Windies female player to score a century.
In the ODI format, she has three centuries with her highest score of 119 coming in the recent ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup against hosts New Zealand. She then went on to scalp two wickets as West Indies registered a memorable thriller by three runs. She finished the tournament as the highest run-getter and wicket-taker for the West Indies, scoring 260 runs and picking five wickets in the tournament.
Now the captain after replacing Stafanie Taylor in June 2022, Matthews will be keen to usher in a new era in West Indies cricket under her leadership.
“The best way I can summarise Hayley Matthews is that she is an absolute superstar of the game. I don’t think I have ever seen someone who just makes it look so easy.
“She hits the ball a mile. She’s got timing, she’s got class to go along with just brute power. She bowls beautiful off-spin. I think she’s got probably the best action in the women’s game.
“If you can find me a better slip fielder in the game, I will absolutely take my hat off to you.
“Everything she does is brilliant. She changes games, she makes things happen and she is an absolute superstar of women’s cricket”
