Cricket was once the most popular sport in the Caribbean, but things are changing rapidly with athletics and basketball taking its place in most of the islands of the region.
St Lucia is one of the few islands where the sporting icon is still a cricketer and he is none other than Darren Sammy, the immediate past Test captain of the West Indies cricket team.
Anyone coming to St Lucia it will not be difficult to find Sammy, who is a household name in an island of 378 square miles that produced at least two Nobel laureates in Arthur Lewis and Derek Walcott.
From the immigration officer of George Frederick Lawrence Charles airport to the cab drivers of capital Castries, everyone is aware where Sammy lives and where he was born.
The country has another international cricketer in Charles Johnson, but in terms of popularity he is nowhere near to Sammy, the first ever cricketer to play for West Indies from this tiny island.
Sammy’s presence can be felt even without speaking to anyone as most of the giant billboards in the country will show his picture as a model of West Indies’ leading telecom brand.
His omnipresent smile that typified Sammy, however, will remain absent in one of grandest events of the island when it will host West Indies’ 500th Test match from Saturday.
Sammy, who is still the Twenty20 captain of West Indies and available for selection to the Twenty20
side, was forced to retire from Tests earlier this year as the critics say his playing style does not suit the longer version.
Sammy announced his retirement from Tests shortly after the West Indies Cricket Board stripped him of captaincy and elevated Denesh Ramdin to the post.
It has brought an end to a career that began so promisingly in 2007 when Sammy took 7-66 against England at Old Trafford in an innings, the best bowling figures at Old Trafford since Malcolm Marshall claimed 7 for 22 in 1988.
Their feats were also the best for any West Indian on debut since Alf Valentine claimed 8 for 102 against England at the same venue in 1950. Sadly, Sammy could never repeat the performance in his 38 Tests.
Sammy has been regular in the West Indies side since he responded to the call to play the strike-hit Test series against Bangladesh in 2009 and led the country to their maiden ICC World Twenty20 title in 2012.
The World Twenty20 title was West Indies’ first success in a major global event is several years. They were dethroned by Sri Lanka in Bangladesh earlier this year despite the best efforts of Sammy, who hit two stunning sixes against Australia to keep them alive.
West Indies lost to Sri Lanka in the World Twenty20 semi-final without having a chance to try because of rain but Sammy still maintained his smile as the defeat ensured a grand farewell for Sri Lanka’s two greats – Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene.
It remains to be seen if Sammy can hold the same smile during
West Indies’ 500th Test that will be held in his own backyard without him.
-With New Age input
