Teammates celebrate with West Indies’ Brandon King, center, after he took the catch to dismiss England’s Phil Salt during the third ODI cricket match at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)
West Indies head Coach Darren Sammy was unhappy with fast bowler Alzarri Joseph walking off the field after a heated argument with skipper Shai Hope during the third ODI between West Indies and England on Wednesday at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown in Barbados.
“Behaviour like that is unacceptable on my cricket field,” said Sammy speaking to TalkSPORT. “We will be friends…but in the culture I’m trying to build, that’s unacceptable. We will definitely have a chat about that.”
The West Indies quick appeared to be displeased with the field setting offered to him in the first PowerPlay after the Windies sent England into bat. When England was 9/1 before the start of the third over, Joseph was visibly unhappy with the field Hope had set for England batter Jordan Cox.
Joseph was seen waving his arms at the two slips in place for Cox and the fuming 27-year-old. Joseph ended up bouncing the batter out to wicket-keeper Hope with a 90mph rip-snorter off the fourth ball. Joseph refused to celebrate the dismissal as he continued to have a heated disagreement with captain Hope while West Indies coach Daren Sammy walked down to the sidelines, prompting the bowler to settle his nerves.
Former England batter Mark Butcher lamented Joseph’s behaviour and poor handling of the situation on the field. “Many is the time, as a captain or as a player, that you have a disagreement about something on the field. But you work that out either behind closed doors, or you get on with your job. Your captain asks you to bowl to a field, you bowl to it,” Butcher was heard saying on commentary.
“I pride myself on having the difficult conversations,” Sammy said. “But in a way that everybody understands what is needed to be done. To see guys going out there and slowly progressing in the right direction makes me proud,” he added.
