Former West Indies captain Darren Sammy says the selection "amnesty" granted to the West Indies T20 stars by the board (WICB) will not be enough to convince the players to choose the country over franchise teams.

Sammy, who captained the West Indies to two World T20 titles and is one of the players that now plays in T20 leagues around the world, has been a big critic of the WICB since 2014 when he led a player strike on the tour of India.

The Windies though have now relaxed their strict policy of only selecting players that take part in their domestic competitions to play for the national side.

That means that Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Sunil Narine will all be available for West Indies in ODI cricket.

 Sammy to ESPN Cricinfo: "That's the problem. When it all started with the past CEO [Michael Muirhead] and (former) director of cricket Richard Pybus, 'West-Indies-first policy'.

"But you say West Indies first, but the first thing you do you cut the salaries. That doesn't work.

"You telling guys 'don't go and play elsewhere [where] they pay much better, stay at home,' but the first thing you're doing is you cut the salaries playing at home."  

The Windies did not qualify for this year's Champions Trophy and have to go through a qualifying stage in March to get to the 2019 World Cup, which Sammy calls a low point.

But the former skipper is still optimistic about cricket in the Caribbean and still wants to see the team do well.