Mott taps into inside knowledge for WT20

Australia coach Matthew Mott is tapping into the local knowledge of a former state teammate as he readies his team for a tilt at the Women’s World T20 in the West Indies this November.

The Caribbean is a largely unknown territory for the Australian women’s team, who’ve toured there just twice: once for a Test tour in 1976, and again in 2010 for their successful World T20 campaign.

This time, Australia are scheduled to play all four of their group matches in Guyana National Stadium, a brand new venue for the team.

The finals are to be played in Antigua – another unfamiliar ground for the Southern Stars – while only four of Australia’s current 14 contracted players have any experience in Caribbean conditions.

The Australian brains trust will no doubt be keeping a careful eye on the Caribbean Premier League, which begins on August 8, and the two ODIs West Indies will play against Bangladesh at Guyana's Providence Stadium next week.

Mott has also turned to former Queensland teammate and current West Indies men’s coach Stuart Law for advice.

"We’ve doing a bit of research on Guyana, I haven’t been there personally,” Mott told cricket.com.au.

"Having spoken to Stuart Law, who is the West Indies coach, he said Guyana is actually one of the better grounds over there and the wicket is probably the most similar to Australian conditions that they’ve got in the Windies.

"Generally a lot of the wickets there are quite spin friendly and quite slow and low, but he gave Guyana as a venue and a training facility quite a big rap."

Australia have been placed in arguably the tougher of the two World T20 groups – although as the World No.1s, they would go into any group as favourites to progress – with New Zealand and India their main competition for the two semi-final berths.

The unforgiving nature of the three-week schedule leaves little room for error and means Australia will need to hit the ground when they arrive in early November.

"We’ve got New Zealand in our group and they’re a very strong unit,” Mott said. “The groups are very even but you’ve just got to make sure you’re playing good cricket at that time.

"We’ve got a good build up, we play NZ (at home) and then have a series against Pakistan as well leading in.

"But we know the nature of T20 cricket as well and you don’t want to leave anything to chance, so we need to make sure what when we hit Guyana we’re ready to go because it’s a very cut-throat style of tournament.”

For Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy, Rachael Haynes and Elyse Villani, the Caribbean holds special memories after Australia snatched a last-gasp victory over New Zealand in the 2010 World T20 final in Barbados.

Mott was also there for that game, albeit as an assistant coach with the Australian men’s team, who watched the women’s final before their own decider against England in Barbados on the same day.

“It’s a great place for the tournament to be,” Mott said.

“The West Indies bring a lot of excitement to the T20 format in both men’s and women’s cricket so we’ll expect plenty of interest when we get over there and that everyone will be engaged.

“We don’t get to go there too often so we’ll really look to savour it.”

Commonwealth Bank T20I series v NZ 

September 29: First T20I, North Sydney Oval, Sydney

October 1: Second T20I, Allan Border Field, Brisbane

October 5: Third T20I, Manuka Oval, Canberra

Commonwealth Bank ODI series v NZ 

February 22: First ODI, WACA Ground, Perth

February 24: Second ODI, Karen Rolton Oval, Adelaide

March 3: Third ODI, Junction Oval, Melbourne