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By Neto Baptiste
Head coach of the West Indies Men’s Team and former captain, Daren Sammy, has said that fast bowler Alzarri Joseph is not being overlooked for future leadership roles.
Speaking during a recent press conference held to formerly introduce Roston Chase, as captain of the Test team, Sammy was responding to inquires about the Antiguan and whether he was still being ‘punished’ after he stormed off the field following a bizarre altercation with captain Shai Hope, during the third ODI against England in Bridgetown, in November last year.
“I think that Alzarri has been a leader in the dressing room and in the bowling attack and I don’t think for you to say ‘punished’ because there is no punishment left for Alzarri. I think that the disciplinary action was taken and he served that and you’ve seen from the England series up to the Bangladesh series that he has been doing his job so it’s all about us building leaders and if we want leaders to turn into captains we are better equipped to do that,” he said.
CWI’s Director of Cricket, Miles Bascombe, said Joseph had been ‘identified as a leader’ at an early stage and that his progress will continue to be monitored.
“Alzarri is one of our most prominent players and has been identified as a leader previously so certainly we will continue to look at him and look at his growth and he will definitely be one of those persons who will be looked at in terms of succession planning going forward,” he said.
Meanwhile, newly named Test captain, Roston Chase, said a request by coach Sammy to consider taking up the role came as a shock.
“It was a bit shocking at first seeing that I was out of the Test arena for a couple of years but I told him it was something I would think about and I sat down and thought about it for about a week. I had a conversation with my dad as well who has really been the driving force of my cricketing career and he told me it is not an easy job but Test cricket on a whole is not an easy task so after that week I got back to Daren and told him that yes, I’d be interested,” the Barbadian all-rounder said.
According to a CWI release, six players were a part of the screening process from which Captain Chase and Vice Captain Jomel Warrican were selected for the upcoming home series against Australia in June. The CWI Board unanimously approved the appointments.
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