Several West Indies cricketers in recent years have retired from international cricket to focus on franchise-based cricket. The list includes legendary players such as Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Nicholas Pooran, among others. It has hurt the national team severely, but head coach Daren Sammy remains positive about a bright future. However, he expects more cooperation from the existing players to rebuild the West Indies as a global power in the shortest format of the game.
Next up, the Caribbean will engage in a T20I series against Nepal, followed by Bangladesh and New Zealand. Meanwhile, several of their star cricketers, such as Gudakesh Motie, Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford and Romario Shepherd, have been rested for the series to manage their workload after the Caribbean Premier League. Out of which, Rovman requested some time off to manage his wrist injury, and that was granted.
Hetmyer opted out of Nepal series
Meanwhile, Shimron Hetmyer also wanted a break from the Nepal series, which Sammy wasn’t keen about. The flamboyant batter struggled with his form and for the same reason, he wanted Hetmyer to travel to Sharjah for the three-match series, but the player didn’t accept. Speaking about it Sammy explained the challenges of managing several players and the situation where the head coach needs to knock on doors to understand the availability of all his cricketers.
“Hetmyer also requested that he was unavailable for that Nepal trip. So again, like I said, it's not always a bed of roses. Some things we don't see, but it's always a challenge. I've said that when I call somebody and tell them, 'you've been selected for some of the series', and I have to ask to everyone, do you accept the selection to play for West Indies?” Sammy said in the press conference.
“It's something that I must do because we don't own the players. We could only select from what's available to us. Hettie has been one of our promising, talented players from the Under-19 level. However, the scope of things that now... we could only select and hope guys accept this selection. But he's always available for selection from our side,” he added.