Daren Sammy’s future as all-format Head Coach could hinge on the West Indies’ performance at the upcoming T20 World Cup, says renowned cricket commentator Ian Bishop.
Sammy, who captained the West Indies to two T20 World Cup titles, has endured a tough start since becoming all-format head coach on April 1.
He has won just two series; a historic 2-1 victory over Pakistan in their One Day International (ODI) series in August and a 3-0 whipping of Bangladesh in October in their T20I series.
However, he has suffered Test and T20I losses to Australia, a Test series loss to India, an ODI series loss to Bangladesh, while New Zealand downed the regional side in their recently concluded T20I, ODI and Test series.
With the 2026 T20 World Cup set to be held in Sri Lanka and India from February to March, Bishop believes Sammy’s tenure could be tied to the West Indies’ showing at the marquee event.
Speaking during an interview on iSports i95.5 FM last Saturday, Bishop admitted that Sammy’s results thus far had been unflattering.
“The results so far are not going to be pleasing reflection for Daren Sammy.
“He started off with three very difficult series, but he knew that when he took the job against Australia in the Caribbean, against India in India and then against New Zealand in New Zealand, where we haven’t won since 1995; that’s 30 years of Test cricket where we haven’t won a game, so there will be disappointment certainly from a Test match point of view…” Bishop noted.
“From a white ball point of view, the real proof is going to be the T20 World Cup next year. That is a team that has a lot of potential from a batting point of view if not from a bowling point of view, and so what are we going to judge him by? And I think it’s going to rest heavily on the white-ball component of the game that will come up in the next two months.”
Chase misfiring
Meanwhile, Bishop believes that in the coming months Cricket West Indies (CWI) will have to decide whether Roston Chase is the right man to lead the Test team.
In their final Test series for the year, the West Indies ended on a losing note, going down to New Zealand 2-0, their third successive Test series defeat in 2025.
It followed a 3-0 whitewash against Australia at home in July and a 2-0 loss to India in October. Chase was also at the helm of those defeats, having been appointed Test captain in May.
The 33-year-old all-rounder has endured a torrid start as Test captain. In his 16 innings as skipper, he averages below 14, with nine single digit scores and a highest score of 44.
To make matters worse, he averaged just seven in the three-match Test series in New Zealand. His efforts with the ball are equally unimpressive, as he is conceding close to 71 runs per wicket and bowling more than 17 overs for each dismissal.
The West Indies won’t play a Test series for six months, with a two-match home series against Sri Lanka in June their next assignment.
“Roston by his own admission has struggled big time with the bat and it still bemuses me that a guy who can score five Test match hundreds in his first 20 or so Test matches has reached this point of his career at age 33 where he’s struggling to put even moderate innings together.
“So, the West Indies are fortunate in that they have five or six months before their next Test series to try to determine whether Roston is capable first of all of holding his place in the team and whether he can continue, so that’s their decision to make,” Bishop said.
“His bowling hasn’t really fired in the way that he would have hoped and he’s still not as sharp in terms of the captaincy strategically as I was hoping that he would reach, but again, they have five or six months to make that decision as to whether he continues.
“But it’s more than the captaincy. For me the big thing is how we develop batters around the Caribbean. How do we fulfil Alick Athanaze. You’ve got one or two other young guys around the Caribbean and how do we bring them to maturation, otherwise we’re going to chase leadership, we’re going to change coaches, and the results still won’t be what we expect,” he added.
(SOURCE: Daily Express)
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