Darren Sammy Removed as West Indies T20 Skipper

West Indies World Cup-winning captain Darren Sammy has been axed as skipper and dropped from the Twenty20 international team.

Darren Sammy, who led West Indies to two World T20 titles, has said in a video posted on his Facebook account that he won’t be the West Indies T20 captain anymore. In the video posted on Friday, Sammy said the chairman of selectors informed him via a phone call that they had “reviewed the captaincy of T20,” and he did not merit a place in the West Indies squad.

“I got a call yesterday morning, it was probably 30 seconds, from the chairman of selectors telling me that they’ve reviewed the captaincy of T20 and I won’t be captain anymore of the T20 team, [and] my performances have not merited selection in the squad,” Sammy said in the video.”That’s okay, I’ve always believed West Indies cricket is not about Darren Sammy. They are looking to the future and I wanna wish the new captain – I don’t know if it’s out yet so I won’t call any names – all the best as he looks to lead West Indies cricket and take it forward.“

“Obviously, throughout my captaincy, winning the two [T20] World Cups has been the highlight. And these memories I will cherish for a long time. This is not me retiring from one-day or T20, it’s just me thanking the fans and my players and the coaches I’ve worked with and WICB for…yeah, letting me lead the side for the last six years. But for now the captaincy has come to an end and thank you people.I just know I played with my heart and soul whenever I stepped out on the cricket field.“

In an emotional six-minute long video, Sammy first spoke about the CPL campaign of his team St Lucia Zouks, that lost the eliminator to Trinbago Knight Riders on Thursday, before talking about losing his West Indies captaincy and his exclusion from the T20 squad. The limited-overs team is scheduled to play two T20Is against India in Florida at the end of the month.”Six years ago I was asked to captain West Indies, a task which I fought [and] would be the biggest challenge in my career, in my life,” Sammy said. “A task which I know would be so difficult but guess what…I took it head on. I embraced the challenge, I embraced the difficulty. I turn up at the office which is my playground, the cricket field, every day and put in the work.

“I started off with Ottis Gibson [then West Indies coach]. I want to thank you buddy for believing in me and now it has ended up with Phil [Simmons]. To my players all over the years, who’ve been part of the team and who’ve been under my captaincy, I want to thank you all for all the support. We’ve had our ups and downs but I have never given up hope, I have never stopped believing in myself and in the team. That is what I was about as captain – trying to instill positive, never-say-die attitude into my players. The result we won two World Cups and I want to thank all of you.”

West Indies’ victory in the final against England in April could now prove to be the 32-year-old’s final match for his country.The all-rounder retired from Test cricket in 2014 and has not been selected for the one-day international team since March 2015. Sammy led West Indies in 47 T20Is, starting in 2011, with 27 wins. After winning the T20 title in Kolkata in April this year, he gave an emotional speech at the post-match presentation, expressing his disappointment at the lack of support from the WICB.

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is yet to announce its squad for the upcoming series against India and it remains to be seen if Sammy will be selected or not.

However, Sammy’s teammate Chris Gayle, shared an Instastory video on Thursday, in which he mentioned, “Darren Sammy just told me his throat has been cut. Seriously you cannot cut the two-time world champion T20 captain’s throat like that.”