Daren Sammy's last stand

Has time run out for Daren Sammy to represent the West Indies again?

CPL 2020 witnessed the triumphant return of cricket to the Caribbean with Kieron Pollard’s Trinbago Knight Riders creating tournament history by winning all their matches to take home their fourth title.

Although TKR’s win was the dominant storyline of the tournament. A more interesting subplot was the fortunes of St Lucia Zouks. The first time CPL finalists were led magnificently by Daren Sammy but for the former West Indies captain it was a very poor season with both the bat and ball. This prompted some observers to label Sammy a specialist captain only.

For the charismatic and successful captain he finds himself in something of a dilemma, widely recognised as one of the best captains in the region but one who fails to regularly contribute on the field.

The performance of the respective captains in CPL 2020

Kieron Pollard was sensational for TKR averaging 51.75 playing some important innings in the tournament including the 72 (28) against Tridents. Jason Holder remained a good bowling option at the top for Tridents in Power plays and deaths with an overall economy of 6.63. Rayad Emrit and Chris Green as specialist bowlers finished the season with excellent economy rates as well as claiming 11 wickets and 9 wickets respectively. Rovman Powell for Tallawahs was below average with both bat and ball but Daren Sammy stood out more than the others.

Despite batting in 10 out of the Zouks 12 matches he only scored 42 runs while remaining not out three times. He bowled three overs picking up one wicket with an expensive economy of 9.33.

Yet the poor performance in 2020 was largely in keeping with a natural decline that Daren Sammy has experienced over the last few years.

He played 66 T20 internationals for West Indies captaining 47 of those. In his early years for West Indies, he played under different captains for 19 matches averaging 15.5 with the bat at a strike rate of 121.7. During those 19 matches, he bowled his full quota of four overs nine times, averaging 14.9 with the ball at an economy of 6.3.

For the 47 matches where he captained his side, he averaged 15.7 with the bat at a strike rate of 161.4 but as his career progressed we saw less of Daren Sammy the bowler. He only bowled his full quota of four overs seven times and there were 19 instances where he bowled less than one over in an inning. His bowling average was 35.4 and his economy also dipped to 7.9 during this time.

In a T20 match, both average and strike-rate has to be taken into consideration. As seen in the above chart, sum of rolling average and strike-rate has been plotted against time. Sammy has clearly enjoyed success in his batting while captaining the side. He was a decent striker of the ball batting at No 7 or below for West Indies. However, there is a big gap in his bowling abilities as a captain and a player.

During his captaincy, West Indies reached the T20 World cup final twice, winning it on both occasions. The WIndies became a powerful force with their all round game changing the way T20s were played. Blessed to captain a side comprising individuals such as Gayle, Pollard, Bravo, Russell, Braithwaite, Samuels, Narine and Badree meant that Sammy faced 10 or more balls in an inning on just eight occasions. When he did bowl a big portion of his overs were neither in the Power Play or in death overs where a bowler is really required to turn the tables in his teams favour. The 2016 World Cup Final was to prove Sammy’s last in the maroon in any format but despite the recent harmony that now exists in West Indies cricket he has not been able to force his way back in.

Sammy played in the IPL for three seasons, sandwiched between the two world T20 triumphs, but his returns worsened over time. 2013 would his career best in IPL with a batting average of 24.85 and strike rate of 131.8 in 10 matches. By the 2015 season he only featured in two matches in the tournament. Since then no IPL team has shown interest in picking Sammy.

The law of diminishing returns

Vis-a-vis the CPL, Daren Sammy has been playing for St Lucia from its inaugural season of 2013. Other than in 2016 when St Lucia lost in the eliminator game and this year where they lost in the Final it has been rough terrain. On a personal level 2016 was the stand out of Sammy’s CPL career where he averaged 42.4 with a strike rate of 168.2 but it has been a worrying tale since then.

Prior to the start of CPL 2020 Sammy made it clear that he had every intention of forcing a return into the maroon ahead of the 2021 T20 World Cup, telling Cricbuzz "I have not retired. I have not closed that door and if I take care of what I have to do for St.Lucia and get us to the playoffs along with my own very good performances that will certainly make selectors take notice".

If he is honest with himself his performances with bat and ball in 2020 were not good enough and represent a wider declining trend that leaves his future West Indies hopes hanging by the barest of threads.

Articled edited by Machel St Patrick Hewitt

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