Simmons says his piece; WICB's move now
Sun, Nov 29, '15
Six weeks after the West Indies Cricket Board suspended him as head coach for "inappropriately commenting" on the selection of the ODI squad for the tour of Sri Lanka, Phil Simmons finally laid out his case last week.
In the interim, he was engaged in composing the apology demanded of him by the board for his angry words in an interview with the media, while the WICB itself had been distracted by its unrelated, complex confrontation with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) sub-committee on cricket over the conclusions of the latest review committee on its governance.
In the spillover of his mounting frustration in the post he took up last March, Simmons, who is one of five national selectors, spoke of "people [who] would use their position to get people into a squad or… get people left out of a squad".
In a lengthy and detailed statement presented to the WICB's chief executive officer, Michael Muirhead, Simmons left no doubt he was referring to the two most powerful men in West Indies cricket at present, board president Dave Cameron and director of cricket Richard Pybus, the Englishman who was hired in October 2013 after brief international stints in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Simmons' account, accompanied by copies of relevant emails, followed the WICB's decision to reinstate him for the current tour of Australia. The board said that it would "immediately investigate" his charges after which it would take "the necessary and appropriate action".
A copy of his statement has been made available to me by a trusted source.
read more at ESPNcricinfo
