BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — West Indies women’s coach Sherwin Campbell has backed his side to make their presence felt in the Twenty20 World Championship starting in St Kitts next month.

Speaking Tuesday, Campbell said the squad had improved over the last year and their series win over England last November had given them a fresh injection of confidence.

“This team is fairly competitive. We have shown a lot of improvement over the last year or two,” the former West Indies vice-captain said.

“We just played a series against England and we won the One-Day series and the T20 series which is a big plus for us because it gave the players a lot of confidence going into this tournament.

“As you know England have been dominating women’s cricket for the last two years and it gives our team that extra confidence going into this tournament and we expect to do really well in this tournament.”

He added: “We haven’t played since November last year but this camp should help us strengthen our team and preparations for the T20 World Cup coming up.”

West Indies have been drawn in a tough Group A, where they will clash with reigning champions England, Australia and South Africa.

Campbell, who led the squad to the last 50-over World Cup in Australia and the T20 Championship in England last year, said they were looking forward to an exciting build-up period.

The camp will be held in St Kitts where the girls will get acclimatised for the tournament, Campbell added.

“Our preparation will be starting from Sunday. We have a six day camp then we have two ODIs against Sri Lanka and eight T20s against Pakistan and Sri Lanka,” he noted.

“We will go up there pretty early, prepare ourselves and get accustomed to the conditions and surroundings so that when the tournament starts we will be fully ready for competition.”

While in St Kitts, Campbell will have the assistance of former West Indies batsman Keith Arthurton as fielding coach.

Campbell was reluctant to single out specific players who would be key to his side’s performance, preferring to stress on the combined efforts on the field though noting certain outstanding members would be expected to step up.”We have Deandra Dottin, Stafanie Taylor, Stacy-Anne King, the captain Merissa Aguillera played very well against England [and] Pamela Lavine, we have so many talented players on this team that we really can’t single out one or two players,” Campbell pointed out.

“We have a really competitive team for this tournament. We have some explosive players. Our batting just needs to combine for more partnerships.

“We have a balanced bowling attack with about four or five seamers and about six spinners. Almost everyone can bowl. We have a wicketkeeper who can bowl spin. So we have a good variety in our bowling attack.”