Darren Sammy the face of windies is the players not CWI President

Darren Sammy has said that offering “amnesty” to West Indies cricketers who play T20 leagues around the world is no solution if they are not paid by the country’s cricket board. In an interview with ESPNcricinfo, the former West Indies skipper hit out the West Indies Cricket Board and said the team not earning a direct qualification for 2019 World Cup is lowest point.

Sammy was also vocal about the pay cuts that West Indies cricketers had to suffer and what they get from domestic cricket is way less than playing in T20 cricket tournaments around the world.

“That’s the problem,” Sammy was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. “When it all started with the past CEO [Michael Muirhead] and (former) director of cricket Richard Pybus, he said ‘West-Indies-first policy’. But you say West Indies first, but the first thing you do you cut the salaries. That doesn’t work.

“You telling guys ‘don’t go and play elsewhere [where] they pay much better, stay at home,’ but the first thing you’re doing is you cut the salaries playing at home.”

The all-rounder added that by giving amnesty, the board is not solving the problem standoff between the T20 players and baord. He said that they can have a mutual understanding or a contract that allows them to play for both — West Indies and T20 leagues.

“I think if you tell guys you have two or three tournaments a year where you get to choose. We give you a white-ball contract or your red-ball contracts, well the retainer contracts. You come back you play home (domestic cricket). If IPL is playing, those who have the contract to play in IPL you go and play. Those not in the IPL you stay home and play.

“Then you have the Pakistan Super League, where the lesser guys tend to filter into that league. So you say ‘okay, you play here, those not playing in that league you have to return.’ And you make the retainer contract something attractive.”

West Indies failed to qualify for the World Cup directly and will head to Zimbabwe for next year’s World Cup qualifications. Though Sammy wasn’t happy with the failure, he said that the team will still earn the spot.

“It’s something I spoke about. I was afraid that we would not make into the Champions Trophy, we didn’t, and now to this,” Sammy said. “Hopefully Jason [Holder] and his men can go down to Zimbabwe in March and get to the finals, and assure that there won’t be another ICC event without West Indies.

“But the good thing about when you hit rock bottom, you can only go up from there. Every time I hear or see West Indies play I’m always optimistic, I’ve not lost that passion that something will happen. We’ve shown it over the years, the glimpses where – especially the last Test series in England where they called us all sorts of names, and we have a habit when people call us names to bounce back firing.”

Sammy also threw light on his relationship with the board and criticised board president Cameroon. He has done that in the past as well and called him “egoistic”

“Although I promised I would not talk about these things anymore, but we have a president who is very egotistical,” Sammy said. “I’ve already said before he thinks he’s the face of West Indies cricket. Youngest president, going around, that’s the type of things you see.

“But until you realize that the product is the cricketer – if you look at any sports stadium, all the chairs are facing the field. What’s on the field. Not one chair facing the box. Everybody’s coming to the stadium to watch these guys. So once you understand that if these guys do well, administration, everybody wins.”

Sammy led West Indies to 2016 World T20 triumph in India and that was the first time he revealed the troubled relationship with the board during the victory speech.

“I was not always like that,” he said. “I absorbed a lot. I wanted to talk for a long time. I think there’s a right place and time for it. After speaking to these guys, because I was once the golden child of WICB. They made me captain against the backlash, threw me in the firing line knowing well that the media and even some of my teammates [didn’t think I deserved it].

“So I had to be going to work every day swimming with sharks, but I had to remain true and believe in myself that I’m there for a reason. And I understood that. So when all the critics said ‘Darren shouldn’t be there’, I understood what my purpose was.

“One moment I remember in India in [2014], when I said to them [the board] I do not agree with the new MOU they signed, where you cut players’ salaries by 70 percent – which they’re still trying to do now – I don’t agree with that. All of a sudden I became a rebel. I just stood up for what I believe and what we believed in.”