LONDON, CMC – Successful former West Indies captain, Darren Sammy, believes the region’s leading players will continue to ignore domestic cricket in favour of lucrative global Twenty20 leagues, as long as Cricket West Indies’ (CWI) controversial eligibility rule remains in place.
He told the Tuffers and Vaughan Cricket Show here Monday that players returning to the Caribbean to compete in a particular format in order to be selected to the international side was counterproductive since there was no guarantee of selection.
Sammy, a former Test and one-day captain, said CWI were also asking players to pass up valuable income.
“I can’t tell a player don’t go and play there (in a foreign T20 league) when you know financially you can be stable and look after your family,” said Sammy, under whose leadership West Indies won T20 World titles in 2012 and 2016.
“What I will say is I have never missed an opportunity to play for West Indies when I’ve been selected and I know Dwayne Bravo, (Kieron) Pollard, these guys have turned down contracts to make themselves available for selection and they still haven’t been picked.
“So staying home and playing the tournament at home doesn’t even guarantee you selection.”
CWI mandates players to make themselves available for the relevant domestic tournament in order to be selected for that format internationally.
And with domestic tournaments in the Caribbean often clashing with global T20 leagues, players like Pollard, Bravo, Chris Gayle, Andre Russell and Sammy have opted to commit to their franchises instead.
Sammy defended the players against accusations of greediness, pointing out it was time to change an outdated eligibility rule which was only hurting West Indies cricket.
“We’ve been called [greedy] before but it was not always like that. When you were growing up you always wanted to play for your country,” he argued.
“They didn’t have IPL and PSL and Big Bash but the fact that T20 now has become franchise cricket and you’ve seen it happen in football where players would rather play for club most of the times and then the internationals when World Cups and Europeans Cups and these things come about.”
He added: “But if you look at it, players are going to play in Australia and that’s a very competitive league. You’re still playing cricket and the experiences you learn from different places it could actually help your cricket internationally.
“I think they (CWI) want you change with the times but they themselves they are not willing to change.”
Sammy was shockingly axed as captain and dumped from the T20 side four months after guiding West Indies to an unprecedented second World title.
And even though he contested last summer’s Caribbean Premier League – the qualifying tournament for selection to the Windies T20 side – and averaged 42 with the bat and took eight wickets with his medium pace, he has been unable to break into the squad since then.
In his absence ironically, the Caribbean side have won just five of their last 12 T20 Internationals.
Sammy contended that unless CWI changed course, he could not see many of the top tier players representing the region again outside of T20s.
“They need to change their selection policy. I see myself playing T20 cricket because I’ll be playing in the Caribbean Premier League which is what is the criteria for selection,” he pointed out.
“But last year I had a very good tournament and I was still not selected but playing for the West Indies I think is a no-no for a number of the guys right now.”
