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When, with all of six balls left, Nepal needed a mere 10 runs for a historic win over England, a fervent prayer went up to heaven.
“Seigneur, non,” it said, “please, I beg you. Je t’en prie.”
England white ball coach Brendon McCullum is a New Zealander. He speaks no French, neither bon nor patois, the variety they speak in St Lucia. That’s where West Indies all-formats coach Daren Sammy lives…
Photo: Getty.
Five balls later, four of the ten have been scored. A six off the last ball and Nepal win.
“Seigneur,” Sammy repeats, “je t’en prie!”
Sammy has a dream—like the dark horses team he led to the trophy in India in 2016, his unfancied, oft-beaten T20 squad will win the 2026 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
To misquote John Lennon, you may say he’s a dreamer, probably the only one…
Photo: AFP Photo/ Dibyangshu Sarkar.
In their last twelve T20I series dating back to October 2024, the WI have won only two, beating Ireland 1-0 and Bangladesh 3-0. The match tally for the period reads 11 wins, 26 losses—including a September 2025 2-1 defeat by Nepal.
In the 20-team 2026 edition, they were drawn with Bangladesh, England, Italy and Nepal. When the Indians, oops, the ICC denied the Bangladeshis permission to not play in India, Scotland belatedly took their place.
Scotland, it’s worth recalling, whipped Nicholas Pooran’s team by 42 runs in Hobart in the 2022 World Cup.
“I am quite confident,” double T20 title-winning captain Sammy told a media gathering just prior to the start of the tournament, “that the squad selected can go out there and get the job done.
Photo: Getty.
“I think they understand how important this World Cup is—not only for them but for the people in the Caribbean as well.”
I think the people in the Caribbean do indeed understand how important this World Cup is.
Since winning the first two 50-over World Cup and losing the final in the third, no WI team has managed to reach another final. And in 1996, Richie Richardson’s side suffered the ignominy of a nightmare 73-run defeat by minnows Kenya.
In the T20 competition, WI won in 2012 (Colombo) and 2016 (Eden Gardens) and were eliminated at the semi-final stage in 2014 (Dhaka). On all three occasions, Sammy was at the helm.
The West Indies failed to defend their title in the 2021 edition.
(Copyright AFP 2016/ Dibyangshu Sarkar.)
So, mindful of that history in both World Cup formats, West Indians may well be prepared to cut sentimental Sammy some slack.
“Anytime I’m feeling down,” he confessed, “I go straight back to the Eden Gardens.”
That works for the ex-player. But does “watching the guys train over the last few days, there’s an energy that’s telling me something is about to happen” work for the coach?
Don’t the supporters want rather more clinical assessments of form and talent and strategy and venues and the potential opposition?
Photo: Getty.
What Sammy offers is that the allrounders in the squad, Roston Chase, Jason Holder, Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford and Romario Shepherd, “remind me of the team we had at Eden Gardens in 2016 in terms of the firepower”.
And when a reporter asks how he thinks his team will fare this year, the coach’s breezy response is: “I’m quite sure nobody gives us a chance.” The follow-up question explicitly requests a realistic response.
“Realistically,” Sammy declares, “we can win it.”
To win it, West Indies must first finish in the top two of Group C and progress out of the group stage to the Super Eights. And Sammy’s men made a better-than-encouraging start last weekend, beating Scotland by 35 runs on the back of a brisk Shimron Hetmyer half-century—made batting unwontedly at number 3!—and a Shepherd five-fer, including a hattrick.
Photo: Getty.
Even without the extra pace and experience of the not-yet-ready-for-competition Alzarri Joseph, Sammy probably reckons, first-timers Italy won’t be able to handle our pacers: the indefatigable Shepherd and a fit-again Shamar Joseph.
So, with Bangladesh out of the way, the early challenge will now be to best Nepal. If we beat England, that’s just icing on the cake because there likely to be little to choose between the top eight sides. It’ll come down to execution on the day.
Unless…
Suddenly, on Sunday, the truth hits him between the eyes. What if some one of the minnows were to outdo themselves and make it into the second round!?!
Photo: Getty.
What if Lokesh Bam, who’s already swatted his way to 35 off 15 balls with four 4s and two 6s, were to get these ten runs and England lose? What does that mean for WI?
“Seigneur! Seigneur!”
Given the responsibility of defending ten runs, Sam Curran goes full with ball one, almost in the blockhole. Lokesh swings and misses.
Sammy breathes a huge sigh of relief. So far, so good.
Photo: Cricket Australia.
Ball two is also full. Lokesh lofts it towards long-off, wants to try for two but has to change his mind.
Sammy applauds lustily. Lokesh is off strike.
When Karan KC jams his bat down on a yorker and scampers through for a single, Sammy steupses loudly.
He can barely bring himself to watch as Lokesh whips ball four wide of midwicket and races back for the second.
Photo: Getty.
Six needed off two. One successful hit and the (.)hit hits the fan.
In Sammy’s head, Mumbai’s Wankhede suddenly becomes Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, Curran becomes Ben Stokes and Lokesh is Carlos Brathwaite.
And Sammy finds himself cheering loudly. For Stokes.
“Seigneur!” he almost shouts. Silent prayers won’t cut it anymore. “Seigneur!!”
Photo: Getty.
If Curran errs, it is over. But for ball five, he damblays ball three. Like his partner, Lokesh jams down on it and gets it down to long-on. Realising there‘s no chance of two, he declines the single.
Suddenly, it is over. Lokesh is unable to get his bat under a low full toss and can only thump it down to long-off for one.
England win. By four runs.
The dream is intact. For now.
Photo: Getty.
For now, WI don’t need to beat England tomorrow. They need to focus on four basic areas of vulnerability: all-out aggression, bowling in the powerplay and at the death, consistency and dot balls, to make sure and beat Nepal in Mumbai on Carnival Sunday.
One slip, Jouvert reach and everything could turn ole mas.
Therefore, keeping Shai Hope fit, Hetmyer grounded and the needle on Gudakesh Motie’s and Akeal Hosein’s self-belief reading ‘F’ become high priorities.
Photo: Getty.
If we are forced to turn to either Roston Chase, who has two 50s in 14 innings since the start of 2025, or Johnson Charles, who’s incontestably long past his sell-by date, crapaud smoke we pipe.
And the post-2016 nightmare continues…
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Earl Best taught cricket, French, football and Spanish at QRC for many years and has written consistently for the Tapia and the Trinidad and Tobago Review since the 1970’s.
He is also a former sports editor at the Trinidad Guardian and the Trinidad Express and is now a senior lecturer in Journalism at COSTAATT.
