West Indies' captain Shai Hope, right, and coach Daren Sammy during a practice session ahead of the first ODI cricket match of a series between India and West Indies, in Thiruvananthapuram, Keralam, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (PTI Photo/R Senthilkumar)West Indies managed to come from 2-0 down and draw a five-match T20I series against India 2-2, with the last match on Saturday getting washed out. It was the first time since 2022 that India, winners of the last two T20 World Cups, were denied a series win in the format at home. Moreover, the series came just a few days after Cricket West Indies announced a 25 percent reduction in its retainer fees for players, effectively translating to a 25 percent paycut for them.West Indies head coach Daren Sammy, who had led the side to two T20 World Cup victories as captain in 2012 and 2016, said that he hopes that their performance in this series has shown that cricket in the Carribean deserves better investment. “My mom always said, you must have a care factor. No matter what you do in life, you should never lose that care factor. I think we’re in a position where we need somebody to put a shoulder around West Indies cricket – financially, that is,” Sammy told reporters after the washed out fifth and final T20I here on Saturday night.“Series like this, here in India against the best team in the world, puts us in a conversation closer to that.”Sammy then drew a comparison between the Indian and West Indian cricketing landscapes, underlining the benefits of financial strength and structured growth. “India will win the World Cup every time they go somewhere in an ICC event. They expect to win. It is because of all the things they’ve put in place. When the West Indies goes somewhere, we’ve got to perform in spite of. Because and in spite…there are two different words.”“One is that things have been put in place. The other one, in spite, is because of the challenges. But we are still doing that. I think we’ve taken a big step. Hopefully, the conversations with stakeholders and the sponsors could be a little bit better after this series. Some investment comes where it could put us in a position to be better all round,” he said.Stay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.