Port of Spain, Aug 5 — Legendary West Indies batter Sir Vivian Richards has urged fast bowler Alzarri Joseph and head coach Daren Sammy to resolve their differences and rebuild respect for each other following a public disagreement over the pacer's decision to skip the ongoing Test series against Pakistan.
Joseph opted out of the two-match Test series, citing personal reasons, leading Sammy to remark that he had 'declined selection' - a comment the fast bowler later criticised as "controversial, without context". West Indies are currently 1-0 up in the series, with the second game still underway at Queen's Park Oval.
“This sometimes hampers guys’ professional careers, you know. Such statements, if it’s not true and stuff like that, a lot of things linger. The two had a great relationship when he was with the St Lucia franchise, so I’m not quite so certain why relations have gone a bit south.
"The relationship, I know, is much bigger than what we hear on the air so it would be of importance to try and rekindle that. We sometimes misstep at times and so long as we have a heart at times, knowing that sometimes the mistakes that we make, we can always put things together and get these guys going again," said Richards to Antigua Observer on Wednesday.
He also expressed reservations over Sammy's public assessment of the situation, suggesting the head coach's comments were uncalled for if Joseph had followed due professional procedure. “I would like to think that Alzarri, and this is just my opinion, would have made it clear as to exactly what the whole stuff was and how he felt and what he meant and I think there are two sides to the story.
“To get the coach saying – and to me it looks like he (was saying) – he (Alzarri) refused selection, and that’s pushing it in my opinion, it’s pushing it in a very big way. I’d like to think that Alzarri would have gone about it in the professional way, and so that at least the statement from coach Sammy wasn’t really necessary in my opinion,” noted Richards.