BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — West Indies Women’s Head Coach Courtney Walsh said the past year was tough for his side but they had little time to put things right ahead of the ICC Women’s Twenty20 World Cup starting on February 10 in South Africa.

Walsh said the team will use a forthcoming tri-series against India and hosts South Africa to get into gear for the tournament but there is need for the team to improve its batting significantly if the Windies Women are to have a chance of success.

Reflecting on the recent home series against England Women in which the Windies Women lost all three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and five Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is), the former Jamaica captain and West Indies fast bowler said the senior players had failed to deliver.

“We know we’ve got some injured players and some players would have retired but at the same time others would have been given the opportunity,” Walsh said on the The Mason & Guests cricket radio talk show on VOB 92.9 FM. “I think a lot of the responsibility would rest with the senior players.

“We didn’t put a lot of partnerships together from a team perspective, and that is something we talked about in terms of getting someone to bat deep into the innings — and we didn’t have that at all — so that is one thing we have to improve on.

“The top four or five — someone has to bat deep into the innings for you to get the scores you want to get, and we have been failing in that department.

“Things have not been as well as we would have liked but, having said that, we’ve given opportunities to some younger ones and a couple players have some more games under their belts so we are hoping with the experience they would have gained from that we can move forward.”

Walsh said the plan from this point onward will be to integrate as many of the players from the Windies Women’s Under-19 side into the senior side following the inaugural ICC Women’s T20 Youth World Cup which also takes place in South Africa and commences January 14, and features 16 teams.

“We have Under-19 women’s cricket, and once you start playing Under-19 cricket it will give us some more potential players to look at,” he said.

“We will be monitoring the Under-19 World Cup, and when it is finished my recommendation is to get those Under-19s into emerging camps and start to build and go around the territories and find more players.”

The senior West Indies Women, under the leadership of Hayley Matthews, won only four of the 18 ODIs, and one of the 10 T20Is they played this year.