ICC T20 World Cup 2022: Team Lacked Inspiration And Motivation – Darren Sammy On West Indies After The Shock WC Exit

The 38-year-old Darren Sammy, who guided the West Indies to two ICC Men’s T20 World Cup triumphs, said that the Men In Maroon lacked inspiration and motivation as well as they were tactically poor in the ICC Men’s T20 World 2022.

Nicholas Pooran-led West Indies started off their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 campaign with a surprising 42-run loss to Scotland in the Round 1 match. They won by 31 runs against Zimbabwe, however, on Friday, October 21, the Men In Maroon faced a 9-wicket defeat against Ireland at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart.

With the loss against Ireland, the Nicholas Pooran-led side failed to progress through to the Super 12 stage and they got knocked out of the tournament.

The World Cup-winning captain Darren Sammy criticised the West Indies and said that there are enough good players in the squad, but the players are not playing as per their true potential. He also highlighted a tactical blunder made by the team in the multi-nation tournament.

“I thought as a team we were quite poor tactically and the problem wasn’t the caliber of players as we had enough talent to play much better. The cricket we play now doesn’t match the talent we have in the team.

“The team lacked inspiration, they lacked motivation and tactically we were not on song. When you look at a wicket and you have Jason Holder who is six-foot-eight (inches) and you have Alzarri Joseph who is bowling well and you keep opening the bowling with Kyle Mayers,” ICC.com quoted Sammy as saying.

“No disrespect to him (Mayers) as conditions in St Lucia in the Caribbean are quite different to Australia where the ball bounces.

“You have got to win the Powerplays both with the bat and the ball, and we found ourselves losing the Powerplays and having to bring the bowlers back on to try and bring us back into the game, and it was the same with the bat,” he added.

The sad thing is that not many people are putting their hands up to come and coach the West Indies – Darren Sammy

Sammy further mentioned that very few people are ready to become the coach of Men In Maroon. Phil Simmons has resigned as West Indies coach after his team crashed out in the first round of the T20 World Cup and Sammy is hopeful of a tactically sound coach joining the team.

“The sad thing is that not many people are putting their hands up to come and coach the West Indies. Even though we were not performing at Tests and ODI, we dominated T20I cricket (during his playing career) and that was something that would bring smiles to the fans and now we have lost it.

“Whoever comes in (as coach) needs to be tactically sound, have good man management skills and the people around him need to be technically correct,” Sammy said.

Also Read: PAK vs ZIM: “What A Shocker” – Wasim Akram After Pakistan’s Shock ICC T20 World Cup 2022 Loss vs Zimbabwe