Shallow grants grace to WI coach Sammy despite poor results
ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Cricket West Indies (CWI) president, Dr Kishore Shallow, has admitted that the performances of the senior men’s teams in 2025 were not up to scratch.Under all-format head coach Daren Sammy, the West Indies won just one of 10 Test matches, one of their five One Day International series and two of their five T20I series last year.Speaking during the Mason and Guest radio programme in Barbados on Tuesday, Shallow admitted that the regional team had performed below par.
He said Sammy and his players, along with members of CWI’s board, all had to shoulder some of the blame.“We understand where we are in global cricket. We have not achieved the level of success that we want, and certainly not at the pace that we want. We have seen glimpses of really great performances by our team, whether it was in Australia or Pakistan, but there have been lows that we all are very disappointed in because there were opportunities where we believed we could have won matches and series that we haven’t,” Shallow said.
Despite this acknowledgement, Shallow insisted there was still time for the St Lucian native Sammy to be able to make a better impression and that it was premature to draw any true assessment on Sammy’s suitability to continue in the role.“We remain quite optimistic. What we admitted from the very start, from the outset, was that it is not going to be easy. But what we want is for our players to bind, to commit more to West Indies cricket, playing harder cricket, and being more disciplined with the training, even when they’re not on West Indies tours. There must be collective responsibility, including the head coach, Darren Sammy. Players have to take responsibility as well, and the board.”
