OPINION
Follow Us"We had lots of issues, people wondered whether we would play this tournament. We felt disrespected by our board. Mark Nicholas (the English commentator) described us as a team with no brains. All these things before the tournament just brought this team together... I’m yet to hear from our own cricket board. That’s very disappointing. We had no uniforms, no printing. It was us in our own little circle and we dedicate this win to all fans in the Caribbean."
Daren Sammy has always been a passionate man, and this is what he had to say after becoming the only captain to win two T20 World Cup titles. Unsurprisingly, he never got to don the West Indies jersey again. The 39-year-old moved on, but the West Indies cricket is still in turmoil. The West Indies Cricket Board is a mess. Meanwhile, their star players are busy playing franchise leagues, limiting their availability for the national side.
Let’s look at what they have done since Sammy’s departure. The Men in Maroon didn’t feature in the 2017 Champions Trophy. They did play the 2019 World Cup in England but had to go through the Qualifiers. West Indies got a direct entry to the 2021 T20 World Cup but could win only one of their five group games. Then came the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia, and guess what, West Indies couldn’t even qualify for the Super 12 stage.
There have been some good memories in between but those have largely been clouded by many poor performances, both on and off the field. Certainty is the last word you would use to describe the current state of West Indies cricket. The board members keep changing and so do the captains. However, one thing is certain, Sammy will need more than ‘passion’ to get West Indies cricket back on track.
The former all-rounder, last month, was named head coach of West Indies' T20I and ODI teams. Many people were surprised by his selection considering he had never worked with an international team prior to this appointment. However, he does have some coaching experience in the Caribbean Premier League and Pakistan Super League.
Sammy has always been a terrific and an influential leader and that was on display when he captained a not-so-strong St Lucia Kings to the CPL 2020 final. That final ended up being Sammy’s last CPL game as a player but he was soon appointed as Kings’ T20 cricket consultant and brand ambassador for the next season. He worked under head coach Andy Flower before taking up his role in 2022.
Last season, the Kings made it through to the playoffs but lost to Jamaica Tallawahs in the Eliminator. The likes of Roston Chase, Johnson Charles, Rahkeem Cornwall, Alzarri Joseph, Keemo Paul and Kesrick Williams have all flourished under him. “It’s really good to have a legend like Daren Sammy around, he has a very calm demeanour. He is a very cool guy. The players feel really, really good and really, really comfortable. He also brings a lot of energy and motivation to the camp," Paul recently told ICC.
Sammy’s love for Pakistan cricket and PSL is also well known. In fact, the former all-rounder has been one of the faces of the league. Sammy has been with Peshawar Zalmi since PSL's inception in 2016, featuring in five seasons (2016-2020) as a player, before becoming their head coach in 2022. The Zalmi have finished fourth and third respectively, under his guidance in the last two seasons.
This isn't a resume that would get you a job as a head coach of a national team, but Sammy has the capability of building a healthy team environment and that’s something West Indies players can feed off. The experience of captaining West Indies under T20 World Cup-winning coaches Ottis Gibson (2012) and Phil Simmons (2016) could help him in the tactical department.
"For someone who didn't have the desire to go into coaching, they're more of coaches I've worked with - whether in franchise cricket or the West Indies team or the different teams I've played. I've garnered so much knowledge that I could implement for myself,” said Sammy in his first press conference after getting the West Indies job.
“For me, all what I've garnered and now putting all this into my style but my way is not the highway. It's incorporating everybody to pull in one direction and try to get results for our team. And try to inspire the next generation of cricketers and our fans."
West Indies are far behind some of the top teams and putting them back on the map isn’t going to be an easy task for Sammy and his support staff - Carl Hooper, Floyd Reifer and James Franklin (all assistant coaches). But for now, they have a simple goal: to ensure West Indies qualify for this year’s 50-over World Cup in India.
It shouldn’t be that complicated, but with West Indies, you never know. There will be 10 teams fighting for those final two spots and whoever makes it through to the final of this Qualifiers in Zimbabwe will travel to India for the World Cup. West Indies are placed in Group A with the Netherlands, United States, Zimbabwe and Nepal.
Three teams from one group will progress to the Super Six stage and that’s where things could get dicey, considering Sri Lanka, Ireland and Scotland are likely to qualify from Group B. The table-toppers and runners-up of the Super Six stage will progress to the showpiece event and someone like West Indies can’t afford a slip-up.
The Men in Maroon finished ninth in the World Cup Super League, winning only nine of their 24 encounters. It all started with a 0-3 defeat in Bangladesh in 2021 and ended with a 1-2 defeat against New Zealand in August 2022. In between, West Indies also lost to Australia (1-2), Ireland (1-2), India (0-3) and Pakistan (0-3), but did get the better of Sri Lanka (3-0) and Netherlands (3-0).
West Indies’ biggest concern since the last World Cup has been their batting, as they have the worst average (29.2) and second-worst balls/wicket (33.9) amongst the top-10 teams. Their middle-order, in particular, has been terrible - average 26.1, balls/wicket 31.2 and scoring rate 6. Shimron Hetmyer could have solved that issue but WI have left him out of the squad as they wanted to stick with the same set of players who did well in South Africa earlier this year. They drew the ODI series 1-1 and took the T20I series 2-1.
Skipper Shai Hope (51.76) and Evin Lewis (50.43) are the only two West Indies batters with an average above 35 in this period, but the latter is not part of the current squad. Sammy would want Hope to hold the innings together but the likes of Nicholas Pooran, Kyle Mayers, Rovman Powell, Shamarh Brooks and Brandon King will have to step up.
West Indies recently played three ODIs in the UAE but most of their batters weren’t available. The bowling department looks more sorted, with Alzarri Joseph, Akeal Hosein, Keemo Paul and Jason Holder in the setup.
Sammy, Hooper, Reifer and Franklin are still new to their roles and haven’t done much coaching at the international level, but finishing in the top-two of a qualifying event is something West Indies would be expected to do. As a captain, Sammy had a reputation for inspiring his team to fight for a single goal, and winning the 2023 World Cup Qualifiers would be a perfect start to his legacy.
