CAN SAMMY SAVE THE WEST INDIES?

Sammy has the chance to put pep back into Windies play

Darren Sammy became the first St. Lucian to be named captain of the West Indies cricket team and in the worst of times. It’s been 15 years since the West Indies lost the Frank Worrell Trophy to Australia in 1995. Since that time it has been all downhill for the Caribbean team. During that time the West Indies have lost more Test matches than they had won between 1928 and 1995. That’s more than 71 Test matches lost in the last 15 years. Seventeen of those have come under the watch of outgoing captain Chris Gayle who had been captain for 20 Tests over the past three years.
Many who still remain interested in West Indies cricket find it easy to blame the board for the region’s woes, and they wouldn’t be wrong. During the West Indies’ 20-year dominance of world cricket, the board spent more time wallowing in ineptitude and insularity than they did creating a framework upon which they could make it possible for the Caribbean to continue to churn out the loads of talent that it had become accustomed to not realizing that the world was changing. Teams like Australia, India, England, Sri Lanka, and New Zealand were retooling, changing strategies as they sought to topple the West Indies from its lofty perch.

To this day, the board continues to struggle to find a path for change. In the meantime, cricket lost youngsters to emerging sports like basketball and football. Back in the 1990s when cable broke into the Caribbean market, athletes like Michael Jordan broke into the consciousness of kids in the region, who had begun to develop a strong interest in basketball. It was also about that time that Jamaica’s galvanizing World Cup 1998 campaign was gathering momentum. Jamaica was seeking to become the first English-speaking Caribbean team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup. The energy surrounding the campaign was unprecedented and it infected the entire region and captivated the world.

All this while, cricket continued to struggle. The team was not so all-powerful anymore and the team had begun to lose and lose often.

Nobody likes losers so interest in regional cricket began to wane. Stands at cricket grounds across the region began to empty out. These days at a cricket match there are likely to be more players than spectators at games.
Cricket now is on life support and this is the time that Sammy has been handed the captaincy.
Otis Gibson has said Sammy’s appointment, primarily for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka, came about largely because of the passion he has for the game. Sammy, while not the most talented cricketer and who has only played eight Tests to date, plays his cricket with the kind of passion rarely seen from this present set of West Indies players. Ask the average man on the street and he will tell you that even while it’s easy to blame the board for the ills affecting regional cricket, the players only seem to care about getting paid.

In these times when money is harder to come by all the players seem to be concerned about is how much more money they are entitled to despite the fact that because of them, the West Indies have now lost more Test matches than they have won. With Sammy, however, one gets the sense that he would play for free. The emotion with which he plays is palpable. One can feel his fire, his zest, his desire to give his all in pursuit of victory. The fist pumps when he gets a wicket, the unbridled joy when he hits a winning shot, the brow knitted in concentration as he gives his all as he tries to rescue the West Indies from inevitable defeat, are characteristics that have endeared him to fans right across the region.

Sammy might not be the best cricketer in the team but he doesn’t need to be. What he needs – as has been pointed out by coach Otis Gibson – is to maintain that passion with which he plays and hope that the players in the team, especially the younger ones become infected. If he can get the West Indies to play with the kind of fire that we used to see from them a generation ago, I believe we will start seeing people return to the cricket grounds. Add to that the ability to play smarter cricket, consistently good quality cricket, and I think that we will start seeing the team eke out a few more wins.

And with a new thrust coming from the board, through efforts like the Sagicor High Performance Centre, which it is hoped will start to produce quality players in the next two to three years, perhaps a little longer, as long as the passion remains the West Indies could get back into the top tier of world cricket.

Sammy, despite the challenges, could be the man to light that flame of passion that used to shine across the region. If he is, then he would not only be a hero in his homeland of St. Lucia. He would go down in history as the man who helped save West Indies cricket.

We wish him the best of luck.