Darren Sammy is hopeful of settling issues with the WICB

Former West Indies skipper Darren Sammy is hoping that some important meetings will help shorten the widening gulf in West Indian cricket between the players and the board administrators as he is still available for selection in the shorter formats of the game.

His last international tournament was 12 months ago, when he captained the side to World T20 2016 glory at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. But in his acceptance speech after winning the tournament he unleashed a scathing attack on WICB, axed him from the team. It ended a brilliant captaincy run, which included 27 wins from 47 T20I matches – the most from any T20 captain.

Sammy is against the WICB on several aspects, along with teammates Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard. The gulf was triggered from a West Indies’ selection policy which says that players must be available for Caribbean regional tournaments to be considered for national selection.

Without so many key players, West Indies have suffered in the longer formats where they are ranked No.8 and No.9 in Test and One-Day International (ODI) cricket respectively.

Sammy revealed he had positive discussions with the administrators. “I had some conversations with Jimmy, he has some good ideas for cricket,” Sammy told Cricbuzz. “It’s all about everyone heading in the right direction because if Jimmy and Stuart don’t have the support to implement these ideas then it will still be a back and forth.

“Everyone has to buy in and West Indies cricket has to be the number one priority, not any personal agendas,” he added. “I want what’s best for West Indies cricket.”

He also asserted that he has retired only from Tests and not ODIs, and wants to continue playing international cricket for a longer period of time. “I’m only retired from Test cricket, I’m not retired from limited-overs cricket…I’m available for selection,” he said. “The selectors have a job to select the team. We have a series coming up against Pakistan, (I’m) available for that and wherever my services are needed.”