Signs indicate Darren Sammy is to be removed as West Indies T20I captain
Darren Sammy led his West Indies team to a World T20 title triumph earlier this year, but recent signs indicate that he is soon to be axed from the team. The West Indies team to face India for a series of two T20Is in USA has not been named yet, but it looks as if Sammy will not be MS Dhoni’s opposite number for this historic series in the last week of August.
The WT20 triumph came at the end of a campaign that captivated the imagination of the neutral fan with its brazen aggressiveness and spirit of fun, summed up by DJ Bravo’s Champion song and the dance steps that accompanied it. The speech Sammy gave at the presentation ceremony was also one of the most heartfelt speeches ever heard on a cricket pitch, and it made the win seem even sweeter – evidently not for the targets of that speech, the West Indies Cricket Board, however.
Sammy’s teammate Chris Gayle, shared an Instastory video on Thursday, in which he mentioned, “Darren Sammy just told me his throat has been cut. Seriously you cannot cut the two-time world champion T20 captain’s throat like that.”
On closer inspection of Sammy’s own posts on the social media, it would appear that there is more to this story than just a macabre statement from Gayle. Within the last two hours, Sammy has uploaded two posts on Instagram which look back fondly on his time at the helm of the West Indies team.
"This could be my last time with these men"-Daren Sammy #throwback to April 3rd 2016..
A photo posted by daren (@darensammy88) on Aug 4, 2016 at 8:04am PDT
"A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, and a little less than his share of the credit."- Arnold Glasgow
A photo posted by daren (@darensammy88) on Aug 4, 2016 at 9:19am PDT
Sammy is the only captain yet to have led his team to two World T20 title wins, a tag he can go into the sunset with if this shocker does indeed come to pass.
As has also been pointed out on the social media following these mysterious posts, Sammy’s tirade against his country’s board may not be the only reason for the axing. Sammy has scored a total of 8 runs and taken 1 wicket in T20I matches played this year. His last significant contribution was a 42* in April 2014.