USA Cricket is pleased to announce today the new panel of National Selectors for the USA Women’s National Cricket Team. It is the first time that USA Cricket has a dedicated Women’s Selection Panel, completely separate and distinct from the Men’s Selection Panel, and it signifies the increasing importance being placed on the development of the Women’s game in the United States.
After the review of the role, structure and composition of the National Selection Panels and the underlying Selection Policy for all of the USA’s National Teams was undertaken last November, USA Cricket invited applications for the roles of National Selectors.
The USA Cricket Committee then met to review these applications and has chosen the following five selectors to be appointed to the new panel of USA Women’s National Team Selectors, with each of the five positions having either a 2 or 3 year term to ensure continuity moving forward.
• Joan Alexander-Serrano – Chair (PA, 2 years)
• Patricia Whittaker (NY, 2 years)
• Ritesh Kadu (CA, 3 years)
• Jyotsa Patel (FL, 3 years)
• Deepali Rokade (NJ, 3 years)
The five-person Panel will assume responsibility for the selection of all USA Women’s teams and also play an active part in the broader role of identifying more talented women’s players at all levels who have the potential to progress to the USA Women’s and girl’s teams in the future.
The five selectors had already begun their duties, attending the first two of the ongoing USA Cricket Women & Girls Talent ID hunt. Unfortunately, as previously announced here, the remainder of those events have now been postponed, but this period of downtime gives the selectors an opportunity to work with the USA Women’s National Team Head Coach, Julia Price, to align behind an agreed selection philosophy that supports the objectives of the evolving High Performance Plan for women and girls.
“Women’s cricket is a significant potential growth area for USA Cricket and I am delighted that we have taken such a positive step with the appointment of the new dedicated Women’s National Team Selection Panel” said USA Cricket CEO Iain Higgins. “I would like to wish Joan as Chairperson, alongside her panel members the very best in their new roles and I look forward to their contribution to developing the women’s game in this country. I know they are all extremely passionate about that objective, and they collectively provide a significant amount of relevant local and international cricketing knowledge and experience and I have no doubt will be fantastic contributors.
“On behalf of USA Cricket, I would like to acknowledge the quality of all of the candidates that submitted applications for the Women’s National Team Selection Panel and we would like to thank everyone for the overwhelming levels of interest generally. I would also like to place on record our thanks and appreciation to the selectors (Joan Alexander-Serrano, Patricia Whittaker and Julie Abbott) who have performed this role admirably over the past few years.”
