Sammy not quite 'dead-oh'

With the second Test between West Indies and New Zealand getting under way at Sabina Park yesterday, the debate continues on whether Darren Sammy deserves a spot on the team. No other West Indies captain in history has ever been so criticised.

He is averaging 33 runs a wicket now, which isn't bad, but he is on a downward slope. At one stage, he was getting Test wickets at a cost of less than 30 runs apiece, which was far better than all the bowlers we had.

All the talk a few months ago, that he didn't deserve a place, was more out of emotion than genuine cricket reasoning. Based on how he started, he deserved a run. He has now had an extended stint and it is time to reassess him.

Batting rebound

As time has gone by, Sammy's bowling has fallen off, and his place on the team must surely come up for serious scrutiny. Since the start of the year, Sammy has played in seven Test matches. He has taken a mere 12 wickets at 49.67 apiece. That's not good enough. If he wasn't the captain, based on his recent form, he would be struggling to hold down his place.

It's difficult for even his biggest fans, much less the West Indies selectors, to argue that Sammy is among the four best bowlers in the region.

But while we look at his bowling, which is going downhill, the truth is that, in the same period, his batting has dramatically improved. His overall Test batting average is still a moderate 22, but in his last seven Tests, he averages 37 with the bat, having scored a century and two fifties. His century came in England, which is widely acknowledged as among the most difficult places to score runs. To put that into context, since January, Narsingh Deonarine has averaged 29, Darren Bravo 26.5, and even Kieron Powell, who many are now seeing as Gayle's long-term opening partner, manages only 27.

People like Adrian Barath and Kurt Edwards have lost their places because of indifferent form with the bat, which means that, in recent history, Darren Sammy has outbatted a whole host of West Indies specialist batsmen.

So, should we start seeing Sammy as a batting all-rounder, as opposed to a bowling all-rounder? Certainly, based on his performances this year, the answer is yes. Sammy is no longer the genuine article as the third bowler, but as a lower-order batsman, capable of making runs, he is genuinely proving his worth.

I also genuinely believe that he makes a difference to this team as a captain. He may not be the game's greatest strategist, but which West Indies captain in the last two decades ever was? Teams tend to take on the character of their leader, and Sammy's never-say-die, energetic approach is slowly rubbing off on this team. None can deny that he brings to this team a renewed fighting spirit that was painfully missing in the years before he took over.

So I would keep him, certainly for the immediate future. Rather than No. 8, though, he should bat at six. A No. 6 averaging close to 40, who is also a decent bowler, is an asset to any team.

Sammy would give the West Indies the option of playing one extra bowler, and certainly in the West Indies, on slow, turning surfaces, we would then have the option of playing two spinners. An attack of, say, Roach and Rampaul, with Sammy as the third seamer, and Narine and, say, Shillingford, would win us more Test matches in the Caribbean than we are currently doing. On quick wickets, like Sabina Park, or in Australia or South Africa, we could always play the third pacer, along with Sammy and a specialist spinner.

Sammy could still be useful to the West Indies cause, but we have to use him differently than how we are doing now.

KLAS sportscaster Orville Higgins is the 2011 winner of the Hugh Crosskill/Raymond Sharpe Award for Sports Reporting. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.