Stafanie Taylor


Stafanie Roxann Taylor, OD is a Jamaican cricketer who is current captain of West Indies women's cricket team. She has represented West Indies women's cricket team over 80 times since her debut in 2008. A right-handed batsman and off break bowler, Taylor was selected as the 2011 ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year – the first West Indian to receive the accolade. She was also the first woman to score 1,000 runs in ODIs for the West Indies.
Born in Jamaica, Taylor broke into the West Indies team in 2008, aged 17, and immediately inserted herself as a key member of the team. She scored her highest Twenty20 total on debut, striking 90 runs from 49 balls to help her side to a large victory. In the 2016 World Twenty20, she was the highest run-scorer and named player of the series.
She played in her 100th Women's One Day International match, when the West Indies played India in the group stage of the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup, on 29 June 2017. On 18 September 2019, during the series against Australia, Taylor played in her 100th Women's Twenty20 International match.

Life and career

Taylor was born on 11 June 1991 in Spanish Town, Jamaica. She first appeared for the West Indies during their 2008 tour of Europe, during which she granted her side their maiden Twenty20 victory on her debut. Batting first against Ireland, Taylor opened the innings for the West Indies, and scored 90 runs from 49 balls. Her total is the second highest score by a West Indian in a Twenty20 International. She subsequently scored her first half-century in One Day International cricket in her next match. In a much more patient innings than she demonstrated in the Twenty20, she scored 66 runs from 97 balls to help her side overcome Ireland. She scored another half-century in her next appearance, scoring 70 runs against the Netherlands. During the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup, she was the West Indies best performer, leading the team in both runs scored and wickets taken. She repeated the feat at the 2009 ICC Women's World Twenty20, in which she scored half-centuries in her side's opening two matches to become the only woman to score fifties in three consecutive Twenty20 Internationals, a feat she repeated in 2010 in a three match series against Sri Lanka.
|alt=Taylor bowling for the West Indies during the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup
She scored her maiden century in One Day Internationals in October 2009, remaining 108 not out against South Africa. She was the standout performer in the following season's 2010 ICC Women's Cricket Challenge, scoring 390 runs in five matches at an average of 97.50. The West Indies lost to only South Africa in the competition, and finished as runners-up. She scored her second century, and highest score to date, during the tournament, making 147 against the Netherlands. Her performances between August 2010 and August 2011 resulted in her being named the 2011 ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year.
In July 2017, she was named Women's Cricketer of the Year by the West Indies Players' Association. In December 2017, she was named as one of the players in the ICC Women's T20I Team of the Year.
In June 2018, she was named the Women's Cricketer of the Year and the Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year at the annual Cricket West Indies' Awards. In October 2018, Cricket West Indies awarded her a women's contract for the 2018–19 season. Later the same month, she was named as captain of the West Indies' squad for the 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies. Ahead of the tournament, she was named as the star of the team and one of the players to watch.
In November 2018, she was named in Sydney Thunder's squad for the 2018–19 Women's Big Bash League season. In January 2020, she was named as the captain of West Indies' squad for the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Australia. She was the leading run-scorer for the West Indies in the tournament, with 84 runs in three matches.

Other records

She was the first female cricketer to score a century and to take four wickets in an innings of a WODI.

Awards