West Indies all-rounder, Darren Sammy, West Indies’ dual World Twenty20 winning captain, hopes several new key appointments will quell the bitter divide engulfing West Indian cricket today. He maintains that he is still available for selection in the shorter formats of the game.
Sammy, 33, has not played for West Indies since memorably captaining them to glory at the World T20 in India a year ago. He was sensationally sacked in the wake of his stunning post-match comments after the triumph where he spoke out against the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). It ended a stellar captaincy run, which yielded 27 wins from 47 matches – the highest winning percentage from any T20 captain to have led their country in more than 30 matches.
With the ugly spat between players and administrators still to be resolved, Sammy is on the outside along with other high profile teammates, including Dwayne Bravo, who has since resigned from international cricket, and Kieron Pollard. The spat stems from a West Indies’ selection policy where players must be available for Caribbean regional tournaments to be considered for national selection.
Instead, the higher-profile players have been pursuing lucrative shortterm deals on the T20 circuit in a rejection of the WICB’s central contracts.
Without so many key players, West Indies have plummeted in the longer formats where they are ranked No.8 and No.9 in Test and One-Day International (ODI)
cricket respectively. The lowly 50over standing means they will miss out on the coveted Champions Trophy in June and are in a fight to automatically qualify for the 2019 World Cup.
However there is optimism that a trio of new appointments can bridge the divide in a bid for a West Indian cricket renaissance. In recent months, Johnny Grave, who
previously had a long stint at the Professional Cricketers’ Association in the UK, was appointed chief executive of the WICB and former popular batsman Jimmy Adams
took over the reins as director of cricket. Completing the makeover, Stuart Law, the former one-Test Australian batsman, was brought in as national coach.
“I had some conversations with Jimmy, he has some good ideas for cricket,” Sammy said. “It’s all about everyone heading in the right direction because if Jimmy and Stuart
don’t have the support to implement these ideas then it will still be a back and forth. Everyone has to buy in and West Indies cricket has to be the number one priority, not any personal agendas,” he added.
“I want what’s best for West Indies cricket.”
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