Australian Deitz Is Trying to Put More West Indies into West Indies Cricket

Source: ESPN Cricinfo
He says Captain Hayley Matthews is thriving in the new structure, and Deandra Dottin has “fitted in beautifully” on her return. Bringing back the fun has been part of West Indies’ women’s T20 World Cup preparations. It’s a simple ethos but a much-needed one championed by head coach Shane Deitz, the Australian who is a year into his job.

“There is a lot of laughter,” Deitz told ESPNcricinfo. “[It’s about] generally having fun, being relaxed, and enjoying each other’s company, enjoying the experience of playing cricket, and travelling the world.

“That’s one thing that, coming from other jobs where it’s a bit more serious and they want a lot of structure, it’s good that we have a bit less of those things and make it a bit more [about] backing your gut feeling and your intuition, and how you want to play and how you naturally grow up playing.

“You grow up playing on beaches, in the streets – a bit more [of] that environment. Australia’s a lot more structured. So just finding that balance and how to work it into our cricket has probably been one of the things that we’re trying to learn and use to our advantage, [and] make the girls feel comfortable that that’s how we’re going to play.”

Originally from New South Wales, Deitz was a wicketkeeper-batter for South Australia from 1998 to 2008. He coached the Bangladesh women’s team in 2013-14 and was heavily involved in Vanuatu cricket as a player, a coach, and an administrator before becoming head coach of the Netherlands women’s team immediately before taking up his current post with West Indies.

Despite his well-traveled CV, it has been a sharp learning curve for Deitz, who took over at West Indies from Courtney Walsh, who in turn had taken over from Gus Logie.

“They’ve had a lot of Caribbean, [or] West Indies legends coaching them for a while,” Deitz said. “I’m far from [being] a legend – [just] a middle-aged white man from Australia. It’s a very different culture that I’ve grown up with compared to the girls, so it was about understanding them, understanding the culture, and using that as part of our cricket.

“I grew up watching the West Indies cricket team, and they had a style about them and the way they wanted to play. So I wanted to encapsulate that into our style a bit and use what they have in their culture and bring it into cricket. Also, just gain their trust that I’m here for them and I’m here to make them better cricketers and make the team a better team. That was the main thing – just understanding them and getting the team working together.”

Immediately before this T20 World Cup, star all-rounder Deandra Dottin reversed her international retirement, which she had attributed at the time to concerns about the team environment. Dottin won a place in the squad for this World Cup, and Deitz says she has slotted back in “really well”.

“She’s known a lot of girls for a long time,” he said. “We’ve changed a few things off the field and how the team is set up with particularly a leadership group. We control the culture of the team and how the team works off the field. Deandra was coming in wanting to help the team and play well. Whatever the team needs, she’s happy to do, and she’s fitted in beautifully, and the leaders of the group have made that all work.”

Similar to AFL teams, who have a captain supported by several deputies, West Indies now have five team leaders, led by skipper Hayley Matthews, elected by the players to represent them with team management. Deitz didn’t name the other leaders but said Dottin, who returned after they had been elected, was not one of them.

“We spend a lot of time with each other, so like any family or roommates or whatever, you’re always going to have a little bit of friction from time to time,” Deitz said. “So [it’s about] just making sure we’re all together and we have open conversations. If you’ve got an issue, we just talk about it, get it out there, solve it, and move on quickly.”

Deitz said Matthews was thriving in the new structure. Since becoming captain in 2022, Matthews has scored 1284 runs in T20Is at an average of 40.12 and a strike rate of 120.45 compared to her corresponding career numbers of 25.70 and 112.88.

“The hard thing is she wants to do everything,” Deitz said. “It’s trying to tell her to stop. She wants to be involved with everything and run everything. She gets bored sitting down for ten seconds – particularly at the games.

“I think that’s why she bats so long. But she’s been so good off the field, and what I talked about before – about the fun and enjoyment of cricket – she does that so naturally. And her personality is coming out [with] her captaincy, and that’s a big, big bonus for us.”

In terms of building depth around Matthews and Dottin, Deitz believes things are moving in the right direction. After their 2016 T20 World Cup triumph, West Indies women’s cricket fell away sharply amid a lack of resources. But in 2021, CWI increased the number of women on retainer contracts by three to 18, and in 2023 launched the West Indies Women’s Academy.