West Indies struggle to find sponsor ahead of World Cup

West Indies women's cricket team, which has qualified for the women's World Cup in South Africa in 2005, has found itself struggling to find sponsorship to take them to the tournament.

The team, currently at a training camp in Trinidad, has not been able to persuade any sponsors to come on board, despite widespread solicitations throughout the region.

Former West Indies player Ann Browne-John, who is also coach of the current team, said that there is a thick file containing rejections to their requests for sponsorship and that the situation is a disgrace.

The president of the West Indies Women's Cricket Federation, Carol Whilby-Maxwell, says it is an embarrassment to the entire region, and she added that, although many people claim to support cricket, they only include men's cricket in that category.

The women's team has participated in all the previous women's world cups since its inception, two years before the male version, in 1973.

Lack of funding is a common story for women's cricket worldwide.