Sir Andy Roberts says coaching is being made a scapegoat for WINDIES' failures

Fri, Jan 6, '23

ormer West Indies fast bowler Sir Andy Roberts says coaching is being made a scapegoat for the team's failures.

Cricket West Indies (CWI) recently appointed Andre Coley as its interim head coach ahead of the team's tour of South Africa next month.

After unfavourable results at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup late last year, CWI did an internal investigation of the team's performance. Phil Simmons then announced he would resign from the role after a tour of Australia, which also produced poor results.

The Windies team has had frequent coaching changes in the last two decades in response to poor results, a trend similar to other sporting teams, especially football. But critics of this say that cricket is different from other sports in nature, and coaches do not have the same impact on tactics.

"That's exactly what they're doing," Roberts told the Jamaica Observer in response to whether coaches are being used as a scapegoat for bad results. "They have someone to blame, they're blaming the coaches. How come we didn't make five changes for the one-day international (ODI) team? We lost 2-0 in Australia; how come we didn't make five changes to the Test team?