Sir Viv says Sammy ‘pushed it’ with his ‘declined selection’ comment

Richards: That’s pushing it in my opinion. It’s pushing it in a very big way.

Former West Indies captain Sir Vivian Richards believes head coach Daren Sammy crossed the line with his recent comments regarding the reason for Alzarri Joseph’s absence from the just-concluded Pakistan Tests.

Sammy told reporters on the eve of the first contest that Joseph “declined selection,” in conflict with Cricket West Indies’ earlier release, which stated that the fast bowler was “unavailable for selection due to personal reasons.”

Sir Viv says if Sammy’s comments were exaggerated in any way, it may have a lasting effect on Joseph’s future. 

“This sometimes hampers guys’ professional careers; such statements, if they're not true and stuff like that, a lot of things linger,” he told the Antigua Observer.

“I would like to think that Alzarri—and this is just my opinion—would have made it clear as to exactly what the whole stuff was and how he felt and what he meant. And I think there are two sides to the story. To get the coach saying—and to me it looks like he [was saying] he (Joseph) refused selection. That’s pushing it in my opinion. It’s pushing it in a very big way. I’d like to think that Alzarri would have gone about it in the professional way, and so at least the statement from coach Sammy wasn’t really necessary in my opinion,” he said.

Richards continued, “The two had a great relationship when he (Joseph) was with the St. Lucia [Kings] franchise, so I’m not quite so certain why relations have gone a bit south.”

At the time, Sammy also went on to question a “contracted player's” capacity to turn down selection, saying, "I leave that with the directors to come up with whatever solution that is—where contracted players get to decline selection.” 

Joseph subsequently responded, saying the coach’s statement was “controversial” and “without context.”

Meanwhile, Richards wants the two to resolve their differences for the good of West Indies cricket.

“The relationship, I know, is much bigger than what we hear on the air, so it would be of importance to try and rekindle that. We sometimes misstep [...] knowing that sometimes the mistakes that we make, we can always put things together and get these guys going again,” he said.