Courtney Walsh removed as head coach of West Indies women's cricket team

Legendary West Indian pace bowler Courtney Walsh has been removed as head coach of the national women's cricket team following the Caribbean side's failure to qualify for the knockout stages of the T20 World Cup in South Africa recently.

Cricket West Indies (CWI) said it will shortly start the process of recruiting a successor to Walsh and his support staff, whose contract was also not renewed in the wake of the team's dismal performance in the Women's T20 World Cup.

The West Indies were beaten by England and India in their opening two matches and finished third in their group despite wins against Ireland and Pakistan.

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During Walsh's tenure, which started in October 2020, he oversaw the home and away series wins over Pakistan and secured a semifinal spot in the 2022 ICC Women's 50-over Cricket World Cup, where they lost to eventual winners Australia.

Besides ICC Hall of Fame member Walsh, CWI has also decided not to renew the contracts of technical assistant coaches Robert Samuels and Corey Collymore following a review.

"Cricket West Indies (CWI) will shortly be starting the process to recruit a new West Indies Women's team Head Coach after taking the decision not to renew the contract of Women's Head Coach Courtney Walsh," said a CWI statement.

This was Walsh's first major coaching assignment at the international level, although the 60-year-old had previously worked with Bangladesh as their bowling coach and as a talent scout and fast bowling coach in the IPL with Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings).

During his playing days, the tall right-arm quick amassed 519 wickets in 132 Tests and another 227 scalps in 205 ODIs.

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"We are very grateful for the contribution of Courtney and his technical team over the past two and a half years and we wish them all the best going forward. CWI remains committed to our international women's programme and will now be focusing on recruiting a new Head Coach and technical support team. An interim technical support team will be put in place during the recruitment period," said CWI director of cricket, Jimmy Adams.

"Further information on the recruitment process will be provided in the coming weeks with the coaching roles being critical for the development of women's cricket in the West Indies," added Adams.