Rum Posse says…………

Darren Sammy to coach Man Utd

The Rum Posse’s sec­ond end of week lime for the year was by Balkie. While the menu was not 5-star res­taurant fare, nei­ther was it simple; it could best be de­scribed as a tradi­tional Trini menu.

To start was a spicy shark fin soup followed by the main course of steamed king fish, stewed pork, provision, coocoo, callaloo and a fresh green salad. In the bar was the usual stocks as well as bottles of babash (bush rum) for those with strong dispositions.
All the Posse members were pres­ent – Big Bottom Beverly and her younger sister, Shirley; Barman, Alfred; Ramesh; Roshan; Sunil; and Anand and his wife Rihanna.
The Posse members noted that all the major news outlets wheth­er local regional or international seemed to be solely fixated for the past week on the capture of Ven­ezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife by the US govern­ment.
Because of this, they would steer clear of that topic and instead, talk about the sad state of West Indies cricket, that was getting worse by the day.
They also observed that Man­chester United, like West Indies cricket, was having its worst season ever, being beaten by some nonde­script clubs in the English Premier League. Most of the Posse believed that Man U’s demise started after the departure of its most successful manager, Sir Alex Ferguson.
They were convinced that since Man U recently sacked its coach, Ruben Amorim, Darren Sammy, coach of the West Indies cricket teams, would be a fitting replace­ment for Amorin.
The major sentiment was that Sammy has the institutional knowl­edge of how to lose in West Indies cricket, so that it should be easy for him to teach Man U how to lose in football.

Balkie: Welcome, friends, to my humble abode. It’s always an hon­our to have some of my favourite people around me. Apart from fam­ily, allyuh is de first set ah people at me since de year start.
So, make allyuh self at home and leh we get down to de ole talk.

Big Bottom Beverly: Wait, hold on. Not so fast. Not before I thank you for having us here. I does al­ways like de setting and I know none ah we cyah wait to get down on some ah dat shark fin soup you promise to start with. Now on to WI Cricket Coach, Mr Darren Sammy.
De man coaching every form ah cricket. Just now we go here he coaching some windball cricket team, de way he going.

Bar­man: And dat is de point ah was trying to make. In all dem other ad­vanced first world cricketing countries dey does have a coach for white ball cricket; a coach for Test match cricket; and a coach for T20 cricket.
But not in de West Indies. No siree! Like we like to be different for being different sake. Darren Sammy never even make ah West Indies Test Team, but he want to be de coach of dat format of de game too.
Dat is a set ah foolishness.

Alfred: But Barman, why you must blame Sammy? Is not he who put heself there. You have to must blame Cricket West Indies (CWI) Board. Dem is who put him there.
Dey feel dey getting one coach for de price ah three. It about de money, man. A blind man could see that.
Why yuh think de President of CWI doh want to resign from de Board, especially now that dat he is a Minister in de new government of St Vincent?

Sunil: Listen, I do not care if de President of de CWI Board resign or not; and in any case, why he must resign? You remember when Jack Warner was a Minister in de People’s Partnership government?
He was a FIFA Vice President and dat bigger than any CWI. He didn’t have to resign, so I don’t see why CWI president Swallow should resign just because he is a government minister.
If he have to resign from de CWI, it should be on de grounds of crick­et and de poor choices he and de whole board make by investing in Darren Sammy and de next bunch of losing jokers calling deyself coach dis and coach dat.

Roshan: Before allyuh get down too hard on de man, tell me what is really he achievements these past few years? Why he was appointed in de first place? I really interested in knowing.

Ramesh: From my understand­ing, Sammy is a St Lucian who played international cricket for West Indies. In 2004 he made his debut in a One Day International match against Bangladesh. In fact, he was de first person from St Lu­cia to play international cricket.
Contrary to what Barman say bout Sammy never playing in a test match, that is not true. In 2007, he made his Test debut against Eng­land taking 7/66.
That was de best bowling for a West Indian cricketer in dey first Test since Alf Valentine in 1950.
Sammy is also de only captain to win de T20 ICC World Cup twice. In 2012 and 2016. He was also a member of de West Indies team dat won the 2004 ICC Champions tro­phy.
In all, he played 38 Test matches, 126 ODI. and 68 T20I.

Anand: Ramesh, I doh want to know ‘bout Sammy history. I doh want to know how he born, where he born, he blood type, who is he wife, or even how much children he have. That is not my concern.
All I want to know is what he achieved since he was made West Indies coach and sole selector in 2024 for all formats of de game.

Rihanna: De best answer for your question, Anand, was given by Colin Murray, de cricket ana­lyst. Murray say Sammy is a total failure. Murray talk about de West Indies declining rankings under Sammy, and poor results like heavy Test losses.
In fact, I remember when Austra­lia bowl out de West Indies for 27 runs, the second lowest ever in a Test match.
Murray say Sammy lack techni­cal awareness and that it was time to get a well-qualified coach for de long term good of West Indies cricket.

Barman: Yes, is true. I remem­ber that. Murray good lick him up. He said under Sammy, West Indian cricket has not improved in spite of some individual performances. He also criticised Sammy’s role as coach and sole selector and called for urgent change.

Shirley: I read what Colin Mur­ray had to say; and I agree with some of the points he made, but what I strongly disagree with is de President of de CWI, Dr Kishore Swallow, saying dat Sammy is be­ing attacked because he is a St Lu­cian.
What rubbish is that? We pass that stage. If Sammy being at­tacked because he is a St Lucian, how come he eh being attacked be­cause he is a Vincy? Is dotish Swal­low dotish?

Balkie: Allyuh, leh we leave at­tacking Swallow and Sammy and attack my food, yes.

Until next week.