As we celebrate International Women’s Day. The two emerging themes this year surrounds Choosing to challenge and Women in leadership.
Therefore, there would be conversations surrounding biases and challenging misconceptions, and women leadership.
The UNDP noted “This year’s International Women’s Day is like no other. As countries slowly recover from a devastating pandemic, we have the chance to finally end the exclusion and marginalization of women and girls…It is time to finally fully harness the power of women’s leadership to realise a more equal, more inclusive, and more sustainable future.”
The North Zonal Council would like to celebrate this auspicious occasion by highlighting “Women of Power” in the North Zone all week. Each day we would be highlighting their stories and how they #ChooseToChallenge.
Tricia Bissessar-Yarna
- Can you tell us a little about yourself, and your career in sport?
“Professionally, I am an English teacher and the Acting Head of Department of English at Success Laventille Secondary. So I can’t promise to keep these answers short but I’ll try! I moved to Peru in 2010 and began training in 2012 because they wanted to form a National Women’s Cricket Team to compete in the annual South American Cricket Championship. There were other ex-pats like me and a few local women and girls. In 2014 we hosted our first tournament in Lima and subsequently played in Chile, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires. In 2018, I played my last tournament in Bogota because after years of foundation work in the primary schools, I am overjoyed to say that Peru finally had its all-national women’s cricket team.”
- What was your motivation to choose this career path or get involved in sport?
“I had always wanted to play a sport but my parents’ focus was education, they were of the generation that didn’t learn the value of ‘down time’ and what adrenalin could do for the sound development of mind and body. Plus we had no backyard! I tried tennis in school but it was short-lived due to time constraints but cricket fascinated me – not just that it looked like fun but I loved the excitement and camaraderie amongst spectators I saw in the stands when the West Indies played in the Queens Park Oval when I was a teenager. When I was asked, funny enough by a Trinidadian woman who was actually Peru’s only cricket scorer, I jumped at the chance to learn. I wanted to be a part of what definitely sounded like an incredibly priceless opportunity – we were literally ‘making history’! I also included my 14-year-old daughter who was part of the team up to Argentina.”
- What advice do you have for young girls/women wanting to choose a profession in sport?
“Definitely go for it! Accept the opportunity if it comes your way and if it doesn’t then go make it! When I returned from Peru in 2017, I wanted so badly to retain the passion I felt for cricket that I shared my experience with Gregory Davis, Head of Cricket at QPCC and he allowed me to volunteer coach in the 7-10-year-old class at their Cricket Academy. Through this connection, I also became Manager of the North Zone Boys Under-13 group for the SHELL tournament from 2017-2019 and I am hoping to do it again when things normalise. However, I stopped coaching at the same time as the March 2020 Covid-19 lockdown for health and professional reasons. I’m basically saying, Make your own path in your sport if you are passionate about it!”
- Can you describe any major challenges you faced as a woman in this industry?
“We are accustomed to machismo in cricket here in the Caribbean and in Peru, I/we experienced the same sexism in the sport. Our group had to use the discarded equipment, mismatched pads, bats which were too small or too heavy (so I invested in my own of course). We had to search for grounds on which to train while the men’s team had a set location (Lima Football & Cricket Club in Magdalena) and time in the nets. When they felt we looked forlorn we got a shy in the nets but even then they would ‘buss style’ and send some really fast and powerful balls our way. When we played the tournaments in the different countries, the men’s tournament got the pick of the grounds and times for play.”
- What has been your biggest highlight in your career within the sports industry?
“In Bogota, in 2018 we were very close to winning against Mexico and I was asked to bowl the last over after some of my teammates had unfortunately helped Mexico increase their run rate. My over brought us to a tie and we went into a super-over that helped us win the match. Everyone couldn’t stop congratulating me on how I kept my calm and the runs down while more than 60 people were watching.”
- What do you think are some of the major misconceptions as a professional woman in sport?
That we are physically and mentally weaker, and somehow that translates into us not being good players or good enough.
- When you started your career to now, how has the treatment/acceptance by men changed towards women in that space?
“Definitely we have become a force to be reckoned with. Funny enough, the Peruvian Women’s team is now 100% local. In Trinidad, I found that the men I met in the sport were fascinated to know that there were female teams all over South America with players ranging from 14 – 50 who are even stronger and more skilled than some of our own West Indies players.”
- What do you think is the biggest barrier in driving visibility of women’s sport in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean Region?
“Opportunity and support. Very little is done to find female players at the grassroots level. There is an assumption that either girls don’t want to play or cannot play, and no effort made to reach out to us. Training groups are filled with mostly boys. This is not just from the coaching perspective but also parents are guilty of not offering their ‘girl children’ a sporting chance.”
- Can you name some other women in sport athletes or administrators that you admire and why?
“Granny Luces who broke the stereotype of how a grandmother is expected to look and what she capable of. She has inspired not just women but men also. She pushed herself to the limits and accomplished what healthy younger people are incapable of. She was a phenomenon.”
“And of course, Juliet Solomon, the Trinidadian who asked me to be a part of the Peru Women’s Team. The men couldn’t play one match without her as they didn’t know how to score! And her determination to get the female team going was relentless.”
- What were some of the things that you enjoyed doing during the Covid19 quarantine stay-at-home periods?
“I caught up on my exercise and trying to get in shape. That was my personal goal especially as I stopped coaching. The sessions had kept me going on weekends and when I stopped I felt static. There was more cooking in my home which also led to more family time. Overall communication and sharing of feelings have improved within my home. We have grown together!”
