Eden Diary: Darren Sammy returns to his big stage, this time as a coach

Darren Sammy’s return to the Eden Gardens as a West Indies coach – albeit for two of their league matches – surely completes a cycle. It was 10 years back that the sinewy utility man played the rebel captain here in 2016, hitting out at their authorities for poor governance after beating England in a last-over thriller to win their second T20 World Cup trophy.

A much mellowed Sammy arrived at the same media conference room, albeit refurbished, to sound out a message that the maroon shirts are in to to win it. They hit the winning note against an undercooked Scotland to begin their campaign in a day game on Saturday – thanks to seaming allrounder Romario Shepherd claiming the first hat-trick of the tournament and ending with figures of 3-0-20-5. This was the 10th hattrick in the history of World T20 and the Caribbeans will again be back in action here after a long gap on 19 February against Italy.

 ‘’We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t believe we could win. And I know it feels like the same scenario 10 years ago where everything that was against us, nobody gave us a chance and I’m looking at the guys and the calibre of talent that we have in that dressing room. If we go out and my favourite word - execute with both ball and bat and also in the field, we’re in it to win it,’’ a cheerful Sammy said at the pre-match press conference.

There is no disputing the connect between West Indies and the T20 format – though unpredictability had been their middle name with some extraordinary wins punctuated by some unmitigated disasters like a defeat against Nepal. Asked to explain the erratic performance graph, Sammy said: ‘’I think you look at the history of the T20 tournaments. We are one of three teams who’ve won the title twice (the others being England and India). I think we’re probably in the top five in terms of World Cup T20 games won.

‘’There was a period between probably 2009 to 2016 where we really invented the game. Cycles come, and especially with us, the challenges that we face in keeping players, in developing players, whether it be facility-wise, whether it be systems that we have, we face a whole lot of challenges. But I’m not one to make mistakes. I dream for an era where we say we did this because of and not in spite of, but that’s what we have,’’ he said.

If the opening fixture at the Eden posed a point of concern for the organisers in terms of audience, a nearly 15,000-strong audience by evening saved them the blushes. Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) had invited trainees of city-based academies and schools to throng the terraces – and would do well to repeat the gesture in the next game on Monday.