West Indies coach Daren Sammy says his team should outwork the opposition to be competitive.
| Photo Credit: PTI
The questions were many, but judging from coach Daren Sammy’s media interaction ahead of the second Test at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, there are no easy answers to reviving West Indies cricket. For a number of years now, the team representing the Caribbean islands has been in corrosive decline, stumbling through a series of lows without knowing how to stem the rot.
Hard work
From financial worries to structural shortcomings to the plain lack of quality, Sammy, who took charge of the Test unit earlier this year, describes these issues as a “cancer that is rooted deep into the system”. But what he doesn’t want, after a demoralising defeat to India in Ahmedabad, is for his players to be lacking in effort and hard work in comparison to their opponents.
“The troubles we have didn’t start now. I know I am under the microscope. Our problems don’t lie on the surface. The immediate fix is to encourage the guys to train better and have a better mindset,” he told reporters.
“The only way we can match up and compete is if we are prepared to outwork the opposition. We’re not doing that. That’s where I’ve challenged them. When we train, we have to be more precise and purposeful. We cannot have the opposition outworking us. That is the biggest issue for me. You don’t need to have talent to work hard.”
Great legacy
Given West Indies’ downward spiral, the talk of a two-tier system in Tests is only going to gather further pace. But Sammy urged his team’s cricketing legacy to not be forgotten while engaging in such conversations.
“The history we bring and the legacy we have left in all formats… Obviously the way we are playing now, everybody would lean towards that (demotion). But if we take that aside and understand the impact West Indies has had in international cricket, we deserve all what we ask for,” the 41-year-old stated.
Published – October 08, 2025 08:20 pm IST
