Overview
Daren Julius Garvey Sammy (born 20 December 1983) is a Saint Lucian former cricketer who represented the West Indies in international cricket. He currently serves as the head coach of the West Indies cricket team. On making his One-Day International debut against Bangladesh in 2004, Sammy became the first person from the island of Saint Lucia to play international cricket.
Three years later he made his Test debut against England, returning figures of 7/66, the best bowling figures by a West Indian on Test debut since Alf Valentine in 1950. He was a member of the West Indies squad that won the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy, defeating England in the final.
Sammy captained the West Indies to victory at the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 against Sri Lanka, the team's first major trophy in eight years, and again at the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 against England. He is the only captain to have won the T20 World Cup twice. On 5 August 2016, Sammy was informed that he was being dropped as the T20I captain of the West Indies.
In franchise cricket, Sammy captained Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League from 2017 until 2020, when he stepped down citing fitness. He subsequently agreed to a two-year head coaching contract with the franchise. In June 2021, he was appointed as an independent non-member director on the Cricket West Indies (CWI) Board of Directors.
Sammy was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to sports. For his role in helping bring international cricket back to Pakistan, he received Pakistan's highest civilian honour, the Nishan-e-Pakistan, on 23 March 2020, and was conferred honorary Pakistani citizenship by the then President of Pakistan, Arif Alvi.
References
Adapted from the English Wikipedia article on Daren Sammy.