The West Indies’ veteran cricketer Darren Sammy is all set to become an honorary citizen of Pakistan next month. The Pakistan government is said the be conferring the former West Indian captain for his role in bringing international cricket back to the country, the PCB announced on Saturday.
Sammy who is currently leading Peshawar Zalmi in the fifth Pakistan Super League season will be given the honorary citizenship and Pakistan’s highest civilian award, Nishan-e-Haider, on March 23 by President Arif Alvi.
“President of Pakistan Arif Alvi will confer the highest civilian award and honorary citizenship to Darren Sammy on March 23 for his invaluable contribution to cricket in Pakistan,” read a Twitter post by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Saturday.
https://twitter.com/TheRealPCBMedia/status/1231103863685623808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Javed Afridi, the owner of Peshawar Zalmi, said that they had requested the Pakistan President to grant honorary citizenship to Sammy because of his services to Pakistan cricket.
The West Indies’ right-handed batsman and a fast-medium bowler has been attached with the Pakistan Super League (PSL) since its inception. In fact, in 2017 he agreed to go to Lahore and play in the PSL final after the majority of the foreign players declined to play in the country due to security concerns.
Because of this, the Pakistan Government believes that Sammy played an important role in helping the PCB bring back international cricket to the country.
Darren Julius Garvey Sammy is a Saint Lucian cricketer who played international cricket for the West Indies. He is a two time T20 World Cup-winning captain. He plays as a right-handed batsman and a fast-medium bowler. Sammy is the only captain to have won World T20 twice. On 5 August 2016, Sammy was informed he was being dropped as T20I captain of West Indies. Sammy now plays in the Pakistan Super League as the captain of Peshawar Zalmi.
Sammy would be the third international cricketer to get honorary citizenship of a country as before him Australian Matthew Hayden and South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs were given honorary citizenships by the St Kitts government after the 2007 World Cup.