KARACHI: After Peshawar Zalmi’s team was eliminated from the HBL Pakistan Super League on Saturday by Islamabad United, head coach Darren Sammy sat sullenly on his chair in the press conference room.
The former West Indies captain has been involved with Zalmi since the PSL’s inaugural season, serving as both coach and captain. Notably, Zalmi is the only team to have made it to the playoffs each of those seasons.
Zalmi has only once won the title for that degree of consistency, and Sammy feels that is far from sufficient.”Without a trophy, being consistent means nothing to me,” he said to reporters following the United match defeat. “I believe that’s what we strive for or look forward to each year.
“It’s not enough to have one trophy and nine playoffs.”
Sammy bemoaned Zalmi’s defeat in the qualifier and the eliminator, accusing his players of “not executing plans” in the latter match.”Every year we fall short at the first hurdle; this year we only managed to take two bites at the cherry and were unable to proceed,” he said.
Sammy thought United had tackled the match with a tenacity that has characterized the team year after year. He believed that Zalmi “did not want is as much” as their rivals, in the meanwhile.
“It says a lot about Islamabad that they have a lion as their mascot,” he remarked. “I asked my team what they knew about United before the game, and they all said that they come at you repeatedly.”
