Darren Sammy excited about future of West Indies cricket after T10 draft

Alex Broun 23:24 24/09/2018
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Two time T20 World Cup winning captain Darren Sammy is excited about the young talent emerging currently from the West Indies after picking up a bagful of his country-men at the T10 League player draft in Dubai on Monday night.

    The Northern Warriors captain took five West Indian players from his team’s allotted eight picks on the night – Khary Pierre, Lendl Simmons, Obed McCoy, Rovman Powell and Kennar Lewis.

    “I’m quite happy with the selection we’ve got. People might say there’s a bias to the West Indian guys,” he smiled, “but when you look at the positions and the composition of the team there’s always a West Indian player that comes up too match the situation – so pretty happy.”

    Sammy was also happy to see other young West Indies stars being picked up by other teams.

    “It’s just so good to know so many West Indians are being picked up in the draft, especially from the recently concluded Caribbean Premier League (CPL) – Khary Pierre, Sherfane Rutherford (drafted by Bengal Tigers), Fabian Allen (drafted by Kerala Kings) and young Obed McCoy getting a look in in this format.”

    The 34-year-old all-rounder feels this is an indication of an upward trend for West Indies cricket, especially in the shorter formats.

    “I think the shorter format over the last two decades we’ve always done better,” he said, “In the last three T20 World Cups we’ve been in at least the semi-finals, and won it twice (2012 and 2016), one day cricket we were last in the final in 2006 in the Champions Trophy in Asia.”

    Sammy believes this would eventually show up in longer forms of the game.

    “Look if we can produce young cricketers coming through (from the CPL) like we’ve seen since the inclusion of the IPL the youngsters India have produced, also Pakistan and Bangladesh – and now you see Afghanistan and the way they are rising.

    “It shows there is development that could happen through the shorter format of the game and hopefully for West Indies we could continue that and transfer that form to one day first and then Test cricket.”

    In his second year in the T10 Sammy was looking forward to another exciting tournament.

    “T10 last year it was an amazing tournament,” he beamed, “and I’m looking forward to this. It’s just excitement.

    “I call it like highlights cricket. It’s like you’re watching the highlights package from a game. It’s just sixes and fours and the wickets coming.”

    The T10 starts in Sharjah on November 23.

    Recommended