Daren Sammy

Daren Julius Garvey Sammy is the first international cricketer from St Lucia and the first to be named West Indies captain. But he will be remembered for leading West Indies to two T20 world titles, a stirring victory over Sri Lanka in Colombo 2012 and an even more thrilling one against England in Kolkata four years later.

He made his Test debut at Old Trafford in 2007 and took 7 for 66 in the second innings - a performance that included three wickets in one over. In the next two years, Sammy struggled to hold down a place in the Test side but remained a fairly permanent fixture in the one-day team.

Playing for a weakened team against Bangladesh in 2009, he ended the two-Test series with 12 wickets. Further success with the ball came on Zimbabwe's tour of the Caribbean in 2010, when he became the first West Indian to take five wickets in a T20I. West Indies went on to lose that game, but Sammy's bowling in the one-day series that followed - he took eight wickets at 12.50 and an economy rate of just 2.85 - was a major factor in the home side's win. He was also one of the bright spots in West Indies' whitewashing by the South Africans later that year, although this time it was his batting that grabbed the attention: he scored at a strike rate of 145.31, and registered the fastest half-century by a West Indian at the time, in the second ODI in North Sound.

After Chris Gayle did not sign a central contract in 2010, Sammy was named captain of the Test and one-day teams, and he led West Indies to their first Test win in two years, taking seven wickets against Pakistan in Providence in 2011, but overall the results were disappointing. Though West Indies won six in a row - against New Zealand (at home), Bangladesh and Zimbabwe - they then lost heavily against India and New Zealand (away). Sammy's batting and bowling performances were less than impressive and he was replaced as Test captain by Denesh Ramdin in May 2014.

Sammy continued to play franchise T20 cricket after his international career wound down, leading Peshawar Zalmi to the PSL title in 2017 and St Lucia Zouks to the CPL final in 2020. He was appointed Zalmi coach in 2022.