Photo Credit: Cricket West Indies
For Shanika Bruce, being called up to a West Indies Women’s high-performance camp is a golden opportunity that she plans to grasp with both hands. Bruce a right-arm medium pacer from Barbados had a stint with the region’s senior women’s team in 2019 but missed out. Now she’s but back and her aim is to cement a place.
The experience of that camp fueled Bruce’s yearning to earn a call up to the West Indies Women’s team. She returned home to Barbados and has worked since then on her fitness and cricket skills. One to regularly be compared to compatriot and senior pacer of the West Indies team, Shakera Selman, Bruce has aligned herself with Selman to grow her game.
The 26-yesr old Bruce told CWI Media:
“For me I look up to Shakera a lot. I work with her a lot at home, I credit her for the stuff I’ve improved on and we communicate well. I’m more of the slower side compared with Shamilia (Connell), so if it is that I work with a bowler more, it’s Shakera and my aim to have the same level of accomplishments or even more.”
Bruce is reading for a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences with a minor in Criminology, Gender Studies and Public Sector Management from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. Bruce believes that it’s always important to have a backup plan as an athlete and she hopes to one day combine her Gender Studies background with cricket to improve the women’s game here in the Caribbean. Bruce said,
“ It’s always a part of me to have something outside cricket to keep you occupied and also its important to have a plan. I think some of these attributes can help me in cricket, like gender studies to integrate women and equal rights… so it does play a role in both categories.”
