Darren Sammy and Andre Russell dropped from WICB contract list for the year 2015-16

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has shocked the cricketing world with their decision of not signing annual contracts with their T20 captain Darren Sammy and all-rounder Andre Russell for the 2015-16 international season. Left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn has also been left out from the West Indies side.

Previously, Chris Gayle and Sunil Narine had turned down WICB’s contracts. This year, however, WICB left them out of the contracted players’ list. Sunil Narine is currently suspended from international cricket by the International Cricket Council (ICC) due to an illegal bowling action.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Dwayne Bravo are among the other big names missing from the list.

WICB is quite known to shock the world with their list of contracted players. Kieron Pollard, who was dropped from the side in the 2015 World Cup, has not been awarded a contract even this year. It’s time to not consider the greatness of the 70s West Indies for a while and think about how pathetic the current selection is. It won’t be a surprise if Netherlands or Afghanistan beat this WI team.

"Selection for central retainer contracts was done on the basis of player performance in the various formats, with Test cricket being the premier format followed by one-day internationals and twenty20 internationals," the WICB said in a release.

Darren Sammy had turned out for West Indies in T20s as recently as November last year. This was during the Sri Lanka series. However, the 32-year-old was left out for the preceding ODI series in the same tour. Andre Russell played in both the ODI as well as the T20 format in the series. The last time Suleiman Benn was beckoned was during West Indies’ home test series against England in April 2015.

Batsmen who debuted for West Indies in the last year and a half feature in the contracted players’ list. Jermaine Blackwood, Leon Johnson, Shane Dowrich, Shai Hope and Chandrika are the new entries in this year’s list.

Marlon Samuels has been retained by the board despite his sterile performance in the last two series. The Jamaican gathered 30 runs from four Test innings against Sri Lanka last October and only 35 in five outings against Australia.

The list of contracted players has 15 names this year: Jason Holder, Kraigg Brathwaite, Rajendra Chandrika, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Denesh Ramdin, Devendra Bishoo, Shannon Gabriel, Jermaine Blackwood, Jerome Taylor, Sheldon Cottrell, Shai Hope, Shane Dowrich, Leon Johnson, Kemar Roach.