Internet Desk: It was double delight for the Carribbean on Sunday night as both the men’s and women’s team clinched the ICC World T20 title. While Stephanie Taylor lead her side to become the world champions for the first time, Darren Sammy became the first ever captain to win the coveted trophy twice. Sammy led his side to become the T20 World champions in 2012 as well.
It was a cameo from Carlos Brathwaite which took the game away from England. Braithwaite smashed four sixes off the first four balls of the final over, taking West Indies to a memorable win over England. Following their win, West Indies captain Darren Sammy got very emotional at times while speaking to media at the post match conference. Here are the excerpts:
On the World T20 win:I want to thank The Almighty, because without him nothing is possible. We have a pastor in the team in Andre Fletcher, he keeps on praying. We are a praying team. I’m really happy for this win and it’s something we are going to cherish for a long time.
On the team: I’ve said we have 15 match-winners. Nobody gave us a chance but every game somebody stepped up and took responsibility. To see Brathwaite play like that in his debut World Cup, it’s just tremendous. It shows the depth we have in the Caribbean in T20 cricket and hopefully with the right structure and development our cricket will continue to improve in one-day and Test cricket.
On the controversies before the World T20: We started this journey … we all know we had … people were wondering whether we would play this tournament. We had a lot of issues, we felt disrespected by our board, Mark Nicholas described our team as a team with no brains. All these things before the tournament just brought this team together. I really want to thank these 15 men, the ability to just put all those adversities aside and to come out and play this type of cricket in front of such passionate fans, it’s just tremendous.
On the support staff: I personally also want to thank the coaching staff, coach Phil Simmons, he’s been through a lot, and to come here and the way he’s coached the team, he’s just brilliant. All the other coaching staff, who have done their part. We had a new manager in this tournament in Rawl Lewis, he had never managed any team before. He came here, we were at a camp in Dubai, but we had no uniforms, no printed … he left Dubai, went to Kolkata, that’s where he started. The trouble he went to, to get us in this uniform … I got to give credit to the entire team here, it was us in our own little circle, this win we dedicate it to all our fans in the Caribbean.
On the disrespectful attitude by WICB: Lastly I really want to thank the heads of CARICOM, throughout this tournament they have been supporting the team, we’ve got emails, we’ve got phone calls, Prime Minister KeithMitchell called me from Grenada. He sent a very inspiring email for the team this morning … and I’m yet to hear from our own cricket board. That is very disappointing.
On his future with West Indies cricket team: For today, I’m going to celebrate with these 15 men and coaching staff. I don’t know when I’m going to be playing with these guys again because we don’t get selected for one-day cricket. We don’t know when we’re going to be playing T20. So this win, I want to thank you my team, I want to thank you coaching staff … everybody know West Indies are champion!