Darren Sammy v Peter Borren: a clash of experience versus temperament – ICC World Cup 2011
“Leadership is like the old galley ships. Hundreds are rowing, but only one (Captain) knows where they are going”, reads a Roman saying. Sailing through the turbulent waters of sports; a cautiously elected captain is of supreme importance. No matter how
much the team is well-prepared and how high the spirit of the players are, without a genius captain all efforts are futile. A game of tricks and tactics, cricket raises the importance of captain more than any other sport. A captain of a cricket team is like
an emperor who has to fight for two purposes; to defeat the rival and to save his position.
The 10th ICC World Cup 2011, a mega and marvelous contest with 14 teams challenging and fighting for the World Championship, is the game of captains. West Indies and Netherlands--- both from Group B but former is full member of the International
Cricket Council (ICC) while the latter is still an associate member - are scheduled to play their first group match today. Both teams have played one match each but have lost their clashes.
West Indies is led by Darren Sammy while the Dutch are playing under the captaincy of Peter Borren. Trotting through the career records of both the captains, it will be easy to predict about the results of this match as well as of the whole tournament.
West Indies’s skipper, Darren Sammy, is an all-round cricketer hailing from St Lucia, the island where cricket is just in infancy. The right-hand batsman and right-arm medium-fast pacer was born on 20th December, 1983. Starting his career from
University of the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 Vice Chancellor’s XI, Sammy went on to play and win an ODI trophy at England in 2004. Towards the end of the same year, he starred in Champions Trophy.
Replacing the injured Jermaine Lawson, he became West Indies National Team’s skipper in July 2006. He first led the team in a T20 tournament. During West Indies, 2007 tour to England to play a Test Series, Sammy played well and grabbed some important wickets
to cement his position in the team. Leading the team in ICC’s T20 tournament 2010, Sammy performed well with both bat and ball. In October 2010, Sammy qualified as Test captain by replacing the then captain Chris Gayle who refused to sign the central contract.
Sammy has played 11 Tests, 47 ODIs and 19 T20s. On the bowling front, he has 29 Test, 31 ODI and 24 T20 wickets. Though being an all-rounder, Sammy has persistently out-performed in bowling.
The Dutch skipper, Peter Borren, is a good all-rounder with right-hand batting and right-arm medium-fast bowling style. Born on 21 August, 1983 at Christchurch, New Zealand, Borren started his cricket career from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Canterbury-c775 A. During Under-19s World Cup
2002, he represented http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 on 4 July, 2006, ending up with 1 for 94. Then
he went on to play World Cricket League where he averaged 21.25, cementing his position for the ICC World Cup 2007. Having successfully completed the tournament, he starred in ICC T20 tournament 2007. Playing well with both bat and ball, Borren was elevated
to captaincy in January 2010 after signing the central contract.
Borren has played 40 ODIs and 10 T20 matches. On the bowling side, he has 35 ODI and 7 T20 wickets.
As per the statistics, Borren has outperformed Sammy in ODI runs, as Sammy has 536 runs in 47 ODIs while Borren has 512 in 40 ODIs. Borren also leads in T20 runs average, as Sammy has 140 runs in 19 T20s while Borren has 107 in just 10 T20s. On the bowling
side, Borren has an upper hand with 35 ODI wickets in 40 matches while Sammy has 31 in 47 matches.
As a whole, Sammy’s career is more prolific than that of Borren’s. Moreover, Sammy has captained his side in all three formats of cricket while Borren has just the ODI captaincy experience.
Borren has an edge over Sammy as the former has played the ICC World Cup 2007 while the latter is playing his maiden World Cup this time.
It can be concluded that Sammy has more experience while Borren has more achievements. So it will be a tough competition as the two teams lock horns today in their second World Cup fixture. At the end, the role of the captain will play a crucial role in
the eventual outcome of the match.
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