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International Regular
LinkSimmons to sign as Windies coach
March 18, 2015
By Vinode Mamchan
Former T&T and West Indies all rounder Phil Simmons is the new coach of the West Indies cricket team.
Simmons was given the nod over T&T-born former Indian national Robin Singh for the top post and will be signing a contract with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) today. He will take up the position for three years in the first instance. Simmons has been knocking on the door for a while and has been making the best advertisement with his work in Ireland with their national team.
At the current World Cup, he led Ireland to an upset victory over the West Indies in their opening game. Ireland failed to get into the quarter-finals, however, after going down to Pakistan in their final match of the preliminary round.
With the World Cup out the way, Simmons was then given time to deal with his contract and will sign today.
He will get moving immediately as he has England on his doorsteps in a few weeks time.
The Arima man is expected to be a good fit on the management team, as he has the respect of the players. His nephew Lendl will also be under his wings, although Lendl announced his retirement from Test cricket recently.
Simmons played 26 Tests for the West Indies, scoring 1002 runs at an average of 22.26. He also appeared in 143 ODIs, scoring 3675 runs at 28.93 with a best of 122. He also captured 83 wickets in ODI cricket at 34.65, with a best of four wickets for three runs off 10 overs against Pakistan—which remains the most economical bowling in ODI cricket.
The West Indies has been without a head coach since Ottis Gibson was removed at the end of the series against New Zealand in the Caribbean last year. The West Indies lost that series 2-1, and Gibson was fired after the West Indies also lost the test series.
Since then, the team has been handled by assistant coaches Stuart Williams, Andre Coley and fast bowling consultant Curtly Ambrose. Manager of the team Richie Richardson has also lent his considerable experience in the batting department.
The West Indies will play hosts New Zealand in the quarter-finals on Friday night (TT time)
Well from our side of the pond it's no surprise as the rumours were going around even before the world cup had started and they were in fever pitch after we lost to his team. He's done an excellent job with Ireland but of course WI is a completely different kettle of fish. This is effectively like going from Bradford to Liverpool, it's a big jump and he'll have to do things a little differently but he's had a habit of getting his team to play to it's maximum which has lead them to achieved more than a few shock results and we can only hope he does the same thing with us.
The word is he works his team hard and is big on tactics so that should be interesting to see...he's got a tough start against England and then we'll have Aus to come too. If we can win or draw one of these series then he'll have made a decent start.
He's coming in at a time when domestically we've got some very promising batting talent emerging and a few bowlers too...with the season being longer now it's up to Phil to make sure he brings them through at the right pace and they stay focused and not get sidetracked like the likes of Powell and Barath.