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          Sammy denies giving CWI president Cameron the snub

          Darren Sammy soaks up victory adulation from the Lahore crowd AFP
          • Osman Samiuddin, Senior editor, ESPNcricinfoSep 16, 2017, 12:40 PM
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              Osman spent the first half of his life pretending he discovered reverse swing with a tennis ball half-covered with electrical tape. The second half of his life was spent trying, and failing, to find spiritual fulfillment in the world of Pakistani advertising and marketing. The third half of his life will be devoted to convincing people that he did discover reverse swing. And occasionally writing about cricket. And learning mathematics.

          Did Darren Sammy snub Cricket West Indies (CWI) president Dave Cameron at the post-match presentation ceremony at Gaddafi Stadium on Friday?

          Sammy was a member of the World XI that played three T20s in Lahore this week, and on Friday his side lost the final game, and with it the series. Cameron was in Lahore to discuss a potential tour to Pakistan by West Indies in November.

          After the game, the World-XI players lined up to receive medals from Cameron, who was part of the awards ceremony. Hashim Amla was first in line, followed by Tamim Iqbal, Paul Collingwood, David Miller and then Sammy. As Tamim received his medal, Sammy turned away before jogging off. That sequence of events could clearly be seen on broadcast footage.

          Was it a snub? Not according to Sammy, who famously took a very public pop at his board in the immediate aftermath of winning the World T20 in 2016, which ultimately led to his removal from the T20 captaincy just four months later. That was part of a bitter contractual dispute between players and the board that only now seems to be coming to an end.

          In July, the CWI offered "temporary amnesty" to players who earlier did not fit the selection criteria to make themselves available for ODIs. Consequently Chris Gayle is part of the West Indies limited-overs squad for the England series, which begins with the lone Twenty20 in Durham on Saturday. But Sammy, whose last match for the West Indies was the World Twenty20 final last April, has been ignored by the selectors.

          Soon after the last game in Lahore, Sammy said to ESPNcricinfo that he hadn't walked away from Cameron but had instead rushed off back to the dressing room for a toilet break. It is, he added, what he also did during the PSL final, where he had led Peshawar Zalmi to the title at the same venue.

          Two voices from inside the World-XI dressing room, however, say that a snub is precisely what it was. Sammy, they say, does not want to have anything to do with Cameron. Interestingly, Samuel Badree, Sammy's one-time West Indies team-mate, and a member of the World XI did accept his medal from Cameron, even though he has also in the past expressed strong reservations about Cameron.