By Neto Baptiste
Legendary former batsman and former West Indies captain, Sir Vivian Richards, is not totally opposed to the return of some senior players, but says they must be totally committed to West Indies cricket.
His statement comes after newly-appointed white-ball coach and former captain, Daren Sammy, revealed in an interview that he has had “in-depth conversations” with Shimron Hetmyer, Evin Lewis, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine about their reintegration into the national side.
“That’s the only way it is going to be done, they have to be totally committed, and they cannot afford to basically pick and choose, and it’s basically like, when I am available. If you are looking to turn this thing around, then all hands must be on deck. If he can bring the team together with that sort of camaraderie [because] it’s not when I am ready,” he said.
Hetmyer had recently made himself available for selection for the upcoming 2023 ODI World Cup Qualifiers in Zimbabwe, but he was left out of the squad because the management wanted to give a longer run to the players who had performed well in South Africa, where West Indies drew the ODI series 1-1 and took the T20I series 2-1.
Lewis hasn’t made himself available for West Indies selection until after CPL 2023 while Russell hasn’t played for West Indies since the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE. Narine’s last appearance for West Indies was in August 2019.
Sir Viv, scorer of 8,540 Test runs, said Sammy, and all in question, cannot afford to get it wrong where that is concerned, especially taking into consideration the rocky past between the players in question and the cricket board.
“When you have a team and you start going to that old stuff we would have had, and that would have been pretty disappointing to a lot of cricket fans, and I guess selectors and other people like that, it would be nice to get it right if we’re looking to move forward,” he said.
“There are certain things, basically, that would have been in the way for them to move forward, and for the West Indies cricket team so there are certain little issues, I guess, that must be dealt with,” the former player added.
Although Sammy, who hails from St Lucia, has coached in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and the Pakistan Super League (PSL), pundits have questioned his ability to coach at the international level given his very limited experience at that level and his lack of qualifications from a license standpoint.
