Daren Sammy, the head coach of the West Indies cricket team in limited overs cricket and a two-time T20 World Cup winning captain, says he is looking forward to the T20 World Cup next year, building and starting the process and getting a squad that will allow them to win matches. In a free-wheeling chat with Moneycontrol, Sammy is all praise about the Indian system that churns out top talent regularly.
Last year you were in broadcasting, doing an interview with me, and now you are the head coach of the white-ball team of West Indies. It's not easy because I think it's an easier job to just talk, so what made you think ‘let me walk the talk’?
I believe once the opportunity comes, I could have only been back in this West Indies team, you know it's a challenging job but once I got myself in the mental state that I am prepared to do this job. It was an easy decision for me to put my name in the hat, I am excited about the youngsters coming, and how we could build moving forward, especially in the white ball. Obviously, we are out of the World Cup but we could now prepare for the next World Cup, the young guys that we have coming through and by the time 2027 comes, they would have a lot of experience. A T20 World Cup next year, I am looking forward to that, building and starting the process and getting a squad that will allow us to win matches, Yeah I am still excited about this job now.
Whenever West Indies suffers defeat or is outclassed anywhere, people just go back to the glory days of the 70s and 80s but I will not go there, I'll just go to Daren Sammy's days which was not too far where under your leadership West Indies won two T20 World Cups, so in that sense you were part of a winning team and recently you guys did fantastically well, so when you speak about the turnaround you were very positive and you can assure the fans that this is Sammy talking, that you can walk the talk.
The credit must go to the guys that I had. During that time when we had professionals in that T20 format, full of experience and putting performances in the park, it's again like we understand where we are at as a team, the process to getting back, the steps and the different measures that have to be taken or we have to take to bring us back. It's a full circle from players, administration, facilities, everything it will take a full circle for us to get back there but the one I am really excited about. I look at the work life of captain Shai, he's not successful by mistake, he puts in the work, you see some other young players following in that regard and for us as a coaching staff to keep gelling in, keep facilitating, creating ways to improve. Like I said to the guys, smart hard work will bring success and might be tough now but if we continue pushing barriers and working hard, success will be around the corner.
Since you have been a very successful all-rounder, how harder is it getting for all-rounders, especially if you look at someone like Hardik Pandya?
Yeah look if you would have a good system, it would breed good players, obviously over the years, what India's been able to do, they have all the resources you know to get players, when you see what these players have been able to produce — Hardik Pandya, Jaiswal, the guys they have been producing over the years, you must also remember who's been in the international tournaments (Laughs). It's just the reality, wish we had the resources of some of the top teams in the world but again we are just working with what we have, India has a good system and you see the abundance of talent that comes through, everybody who comes in International is ready, and that's the plus for you to compete with the best teams in the world, and it's not by mistake the good system is working for them.
You spoke about some of the young talents in India, who has been the most impressive whether in the Test Series or in this series. Who has been the most impressive if you talk about India?
To be honest, I have been more focused on the team that I have, trying to turn around what we have here, obviously, we are playing against them, so I had to watch and start building plans. I'd say Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, they have Sanju Samson who didn't play, he's been performing, Hardik Pandya, he's young but he's seasoned in the team, but again it speaks of the system they have that keeps producing these youngsters coming on the International scene. Jaiswal's first class season, 1,800 runs in nine matches, nine 100s, then he comes to Dominica and he looks like he belongs at the international level, which comes from the standard of first class cricket, regional cricket in India, which is allowing the youngsters when they come in to be ready for international cricket and that's something from our end we got to get to.
When I was in Barbados everyone was talking about why India hasn't played a game at Barbados, such a formidable legacy of this ground, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma batted at No.7 and Virat Kohli didn't get a chance, that will be the last game in Barbados possibly for Virat and Rohit. A lot of West Indians were disappointed not to see them bat.
I wanna just focus on my team, these two gentlemen have been stalwarts for India, especially Virat. I am surprised he's not played in Barbados before, I wasn't aware of that, we didn't give them enough runs for us to challenge a Virat, or India to keep their batting line-up in check, but the toughness that Virat and Rohit and a real proper batting line up that India poses, it's about going out and executing against such a good team.
You spoke highly about the Indian system, infrastructure and talent. When you go into the dressing room, when you talk to the players you talk about the strengths and the weaknesses, who are the players you mostly talk about or give example, obviously Virat and Rohit, but not everyone can be Virat and Rohit?
If I tell you my game plan you'd know everybody, you'll have to watch for that tomorrow, thank you very much. (Laughs)
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