Windies spurred by Nicholas' 'short of brains' comment

 It was hard to make out whether Darren Sammy was angry or hurt when reminded of a caustic comment by Mark Nicholas – former County cricketer-turned TV analyst – in his column about a month ago. He wasn’t definitely amused though.

Asked why West Indies struggle to get respect, Sammy appeared calm. “I think the way we’ve played in Test cricket really filters down to the other two formats,” he began to answer. “Our Tests results, to be fair, haven’t really been good. It hurts all of us to see a side that once dominated for 17 consecutive years…. For lack of proper management and structure and development, we’ve struggled for over two decades,” he pointed out before training his guns on Nicholas, who had written “West Indies are short of brains but have IPL history in their ranks” in a column, talking of their chances in the ongoing World T20.

“People paint us as money-grabbing cricketers because of our success in T20 cricket. Yet still they don’t respect us in that format and we get that sometimes from our own board.  The key for us is the belief in our inner circle.  Yes, the coach did make that comment (West Indies coach Phil Simmons tweeted “awesome display by this group (of) men with no brains, imagine if we had some” after their semifinal win)… How could you describe people with no brains? Even animals have brains. We’re not an object and for me that comment really set us off. You’ve seen me talking about it.”

In 2014 World T20, Australian all-rounder James Faulkner had remarked, “I don’t particularly like them” ahead of their match against West Indies. The Caribbeans used this as a spur and hammered the Aussies in a big chase, with Sammy clubbing Faulkner for a winning six.

England may well become victims of West Indies’ fury in Sunday’s final.  “It’s really emotional for somebody who I respect, and have a good rapport with generally … to describe our team who two years ago were world champions as guys with no brains, that’s really out of order. God don’t love the ugly, and we are very wonderful and beautifully made, that’s why we play exciting cricket. So for us, all these things that happened are before the tournament.