Ramdin was heavily criticised for his disrespect towards Sir Vivian Richards
West Indies captain Darren Sammy declared that his team do respect the greats of the game, even after wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin was hit with a fine by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for taking a rather unusual jibe at legendary captain Sir Vivian Richards.
During the third Test against England last month, Ramdin, upon reaching his century, celebrated by taking out a piece of paper from his pocket which read ‘Yeah Viv Talk Nah’.
Speaking at a press conference, Sammy stated that he and Ramdin had spoken about the incident.
“Denesh and I spoke and he spoke in the media yesterday and he said probably his emotions got the better of him, we as a West Indian team have a lot of respect for our past players especially someone so great as Sir Viv. We all take a lot of inspiration from Fire in Babylon (movie on great former Windies players) which reflects our history and as a team we have a lot of respect for guys like Sir Viv,” Sammy said.
A couple of days before the Test started, Sir Vivian Richards had noted that Ramdin had “deteriorated in such a big way” and looked like “a totally lost guy”.
Ramdin, also admitted that his celebration after making his century was “a bit emotional”.
Sammy also expects Ramdin and Sir Vivian Richards to have a talk about the issue, but stated that he had no idea if his team-mate would apologise in person.
“I know Ramdin would probably have a word with him. There’s no love lost, like he said. Hopefully we could move on and continue respecting our past players,” Sammy said.
Ramdin’s celebration and jibe at Sir Vivian Richards also brought the criticism of Michael Holding, who is another West Indies legend.
Holding, thought that Ramdin should have been fined by the team management for his “crass” behaviour.
When asked about what he thought about Holding’s comments, Sammy said: “That’s Mikey’s opinion. Again, a lot of people have been having opinions about what the team should do and what should happen.”