KARACHI: Peshawar Zalmi head coach Darren Sammy sat dejected, sunk in his chair in the press conference room after Islamabad United had knocked his team out of the HBL Pakistan Super League on Saturday.

The former West Indies skipper had been associated with Zalmi since the first season of the PSL — first as captain and then as coach — and his is the only franchise that has succeeded in qualifying for the playoffs in all of those seasons.

For that level of consistency, Zalmi have won the title only once, and for Sammy, that is far from enough.“Being consistent doesn’t mean anything to me without a trophy,” he told reporters after the loss against United. “I think that’s what we look to or aim to get every year.

“Nine playoffs, one trophy; that’s not enough”

Sammy rued how Zalmi lost both the Qualifier and the Eliminator, as he criticised how his players “didn’t execute plans” in the latter.“We’ve always got in the first hurdle, this year again we had two bites at the cherry and we could not move on,” he observed.

Sammy believed United approached the game with a relentlessness that has defined the side season in season out. Meanwhile, he was of the opinion that Zalmi “did not want is as much” as their opponents did.

“They have a lion as their mascot and that tells a lot about Islamabad,” he said. “Before the match I had asked my team what did they know about United and all of them agreed that they come at you again and again.”

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2024