Chinelle Henry: Intimidatingly entertaining

She likes the entertainment. She likes the energy. She likes the vibes.

Those are the self-quoted words and life mantras of the standout new entrant in the Women's Premier League. Chinelle Henry has been around the international circuit for a while. The 29-year-old Jamaican's fast sprints on the field were visible, and so were the brisk runs that she would add lower down the order. But in no format or league had the bowling all-rounder made the kind of early impression with the bat that she did with her 23-ball 62 against Delhi Capitals at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Yet it mattered little to her that she broke the trend of teams batting first losing - or that her own powers came to the spotlight. Of greater importance was that through a deluge of massive sixes, she put the holy culture of her land on display.

"It's just about the entertainment for us because that's how we are, and that's how we thrive," Henry confesses. "When we're having fun, when we're entertaining, that's when we're at our best. That's our culture, that's our roots. We just come here, we just do it, and everybody seems to like it. We've been doing good, we've been performing, so it's just about continuing to do that; bring in the explosiveness, the entertainment, the energy. It's something that we do back home, and that's just something that we try to share with the world as much as possible, wherever we go."

For a country that likes its fun fast and entertaining, maybe cricket is not the most appealing sport. For Henry, who participated in track and field events, her encounter with cricket was accidental, merely an extension of all that she tried to ape the boys in her neighbourhood doing. She fell in love with the sport at the age of 13, and for some reason that she isn't aware of, she could just naturally catch the cricket ball.

She continued playing with the boys till the age of 15 before threats of injuries forced the coach to push her to play representative cricket. "By that age, the boys have grown huge. When you're playing against boys and you're doing better than them, their ego is like, 'No, she's a girl, there's no way'. And then they just started trying to hurt you and intimidate you. I was just a scared little girl not knowing what was happening, and fortunate to have that support system of the coaches and even my parents at that time, even though they were a little iffy with boys coming at me. A cricket ball is hard, everything is hard.

"For a while, the board didn't allow girls to play with the boys because they felt it was too dangerous. And I could understand why they would say that. That kind of drove them to have more females, to recruit more girls, just to have an all-girls team, just to have girls playing. I was just glad to be a part of that era where I was one of those females to be able to play with boys because I guess that's where I kind of get the toughness, like if you get a hit, you get up, you go again. That kind of thing."

From getting intimidated by the boys to now intimidating the best bowlers around the world, life has evolved for Henry. As someone who can change the course of the game so late in the batting order, she presents an incredibly rare sight for a No 8 batter, especially in women's cricket. With two back-to-back innings against Capitals, Henry served a warning of her explosive batting skills, making both her teammates and opposition aware of the damage she can cause in just a few overs in the middle. It's a fact that Henry is aware of, and enjoys.

"Coming in as a replacement player, I knew all eyes would be on me. There would be questions coming in (to the coach), why you chose her as a replacement when you had other options. So, I wanted to make an early impact. Just show everybody who's watching or asking why I was brought in to replace such a player as Alyssa Healy."

The question Henry is alluding to was bound to come up. Firstly, a vastly experienced top-order wicketkeeper-batter was being replaced by a seam-bowling all-rounder who bats in the lower order. Secondly, Henry's explosiveness against high-quality attacks had been limited. In fact, even after those two knocks, the big-hitting Jamaican's powers have been curbed in the following games by a slew of slower deliveries bowled wide outside the off-stump.

It was a weakness exploited by Kim Garth first, and then by a few other bowlers. In the following game against Mumbai Indians, she was limited to an 8-ball 7. Henry smiles as she acknowledges the existing limitations of her batting, but it's an aspect of her game that she is ready to work on.

"In the game against Mumbai, things didn't work out how I wanted it," she admits. "After the game, we were just having a little chat, and Hayley (Matthews) was like, 'yeah, there was no way (Shabnim) Ismail was not going to bowl to you. She's probably the only person that could probably cool you down a bit.'

"It was just a little banter there, but I think that's good to know that when I walk out, oppositions are like, 'yeah, what are we going to do against her? What's the plan?' That's something that I want to take forward with me. Even in my own setup back home in West Indies, when I walk on the field, I'm standing tall, people are just like, 'yeah, this is another headache. How are we going to bowl to her? Are we going to get her out?' To come here and actually do that, this has been something that I've been wanting for a long time.

"Obviously, there are bowlers who are going to have to work it out. So there are things that I still need to improve on in my game. And I continue to do that in every training session. But at least I have, in the back of my mind, something to always think about, and that's a good challenge. Now I'm looking for probably six different balls, because they're not going to do the same thing. And if I can counter that, then obviously, I'm in a good space."

Jamaica may have fielded a team in the inaugural Women's World Cup in 1973, but even half a century since then, it has struggled to increase the flow of participation of girls in the sport. This is despite Stafanie Taylor, one of the leading all-rounders in world cricket for more than a decade, being a prominent face from the island. Henry hasn't had the chance to meet many of the yesteryear greats of West Indian cricket, but she's aware that they would've inspired the previous generations. She aspires to keep the torch of entertainment alive and convince the next generation that cricket is fun.

"I've just met a few who have played for Jamaica over the years. A couple of them have coached, a couple of them have come to watch games. I've had the chance to play with a few of them before they retired, but that was back when I was very young. So I had the privilege, and it's now about giving that privilege back to young girls who want to play with the likes of me or a Stafanie Taylor.

"It's just about trying to inspire them to want to play cricket and make them believe that this is something that they can gain a lot from a lot of experience, a lot of travel, a lot of things that will be good for them and their families."