West Indies captain Darren Sammy always believed he would win World T20
Sunday 3 April 2016 22:04, UK
Darren Sammy says he always believed that the West Indies would win the ICC World T20 tournament in India.
Carlos Brathwaite hit four consecutive sixes in the final over of the match to guide the West Indies to a four-wicket victory over England in Sunday's final.
After losing the toss, England made 155-9 off their 20 overs, largely thanks to a half century from Joe Root. England's player of the tournament then took two quick wickets to help reduce the Windies to 22-3 early on in their reply.
However, a magnificent 85 off 66 balls from Marlon Samuels helped the Windies recover before Brathwaite hit the winning runs off Ben Stokes' final over.
Sammy says he always believed in his side, who are now the first team to win the World T20 twice.
"Not at all," said Sammy, when asked if he had given up hope of a West Indies victory heading into the final over.
"Firstly I want to thank the almighty because without him nothing is possible. We're really happy with this win, it's something we're going to cherish for a long time.
"I think we had 15 match winners. Nobody gave us a chance and in every game somebody stepped up and took responsibility.
"To see Carlos [Brathwaite] play like that in his debut World Cup is just tremendous. It shows the depth we have in the Caribbean in T20 cricket and hopefully with the right development our cricket can improve in one-day cricket and Test cricket."
The West Indies were in turmoil in the run up to the tournament, with the players locked in a bitter contractual dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board [WICB]. However, Sammy says the uncertainty back home helped spur his side on in India.
"People were wondering if we would play this tournament, we had a lot of issues. We felt disrespected by the board," said the West Indies captain.
"All these things before the tournament brought this team together. I want to really thank these 15 men - the ability to put all adversity aside and come out and play this type of cricket, it's just tremendous."
Sammy also used his post-match interview to openly criticise the WICB.
"This win we dedicate it to all the fans in the Caribbean. I want to thank [Grenada's] Prime minister [Keith] Mitchell, who sent us a very inspiring message this morning. I'm still yet to hear from our own board which I find very disappointing," he said.
"For today, I'm going to celebrate with these 15 men and our 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 and we don't know when we'll play T20.
"Everybody, the West Indies are champions."
