Brian Lara has said that Darren Sammy may not be the most talented cricketer in the West Indies team, but, his passion for cricket makes him a special player and a team man.
Darren Sammy has been captaining the West Indies team in all the three formats of the game since the last 2 and half years and the team has produced decent results during his tenure as captain.
Last year, West Indies won an ICC event after 33 long years when they won the World T20 Championship by defeating Sri Lanka in the final match.
However, after that tournament, the performance of West Indies dipped down a bit and they lost ODI series against Bangladesh and Australia.
Because of West Indies’ defeat in those two series, Sammy has faced a bit of criticism.
When asked if Sammy is the right man to lead the West Indies team at this point of time, Lara said, “Yes, I think he needs to be given a few more chances. I think he has led the team quite well in the last couple of years.”
“The captain alone can’t be blamed for poor performances. The whole team is responsible for what happened in Bangladesh and Australia. We were not consistent with the bat and thus, we lost.”
When asked how talented Sammy is as a cricketer, Lara said, “Look, he might not have got as much talent as some of the other guys in the West Indies team have got, but, his passion for cricket is amazing. You can expect him to give 100% whenever he walks out there.”
Sammy’s record as a player is not that impressive and many experts think that he doesn’t deserve to be in the team. He is in the team as an all rounder, but, he averages only 21 with the bat in both tests and ODIs. His bowling average in tests is over 34, while, in ODIs, it’s over 42.