The current state of West Indies cricket will leave any cricket loving West Indian grasping at anything in an effort to get back to winning ways. With England already touching our shores everyone will be looking to put the dismal World Cup performance behind and hope that things can start to change against the “Poms”.

What is different this time around and from the World Cup a few weeks ago? Well, these two things I am going to try and address in this column today. The first one is the appointment of Trinidadian Phil Simmons as coach of the Caribbean team. The big man from Arima packed his bags after eight years in cold Ireland, making their cricketers relevant and their cricket respected on the world scene. He mentioned that with the current state of West Indies cricket, he could not turn his back on his country, at this time and decided to come back home.

 

read the full article at Trinidad Guardan

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In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com

Has someone says before, it is going to be interesting reading the Trini press during Simmo stint

In reply to Timpy

Mamchan was frothing at the bit for Gibson head.

I agree with the sentiment that any coach should have time to implement their plans especially with a team structure so wounded as WI is.

Not just when its someone Mamchan and Ramnarine like.

THIS! is what's so fcuked up about WI cricket...

Well the first thing Simmonds should address is his coaching staff, as many players are selected for international cricket and after years of experience at that level, shows no improvement.

I am optimistic.
And I am happy Simmo Sr. has all the boxes checked.

1. Local grown.
2. Recent success.

On the field if players don't produce I hope I don't read BS from Point about WICB.

In reply to Larr Pullo
Until the micro management aspect is removed, it will remain a messed up environment to work in.

I am already hearing grumbling from people who really want WI cricket to succeed under Simmonds but see nothing but failure because of the following reasons.

1: Simmonds will not not have full autonomy to execute his own individual strategies.

2: He is coming into a set up with the objectives strictly set out on paper by Pybus.

3: He is given a team to coach with no input from him on the personnel selected for him to coach.

4: The WICB is made up of EDUCATED FOOLS who keep doing the same thing over and over with the same embarrassing results.

5: As head coach, he should be able to have a say on who his assistants are going to be. This is not the case at the moment.

6: The entire set up is a recipe for failure. The West Indian culture is so misguided that "Sir this" and "Sir that" in the mix is going to be intimidating to the ordinary folks (players) even if unintentional.

If the WICB want to see improvement, the first thing they should do is allow Simmonds to appoint someone such as Dr.Christine Cummings and go from there with some autonomy to do things the way they see best for WI cricket.

As it is right now, doing the same thing over and over with the micro-management philosophy fully intact, leads to the one and only result for Simmonds. FAILURE.

In reply to Star

How do you know he will have no input or no assistants of his own?

Christine?

You all taking message board talk far.

In reply to Commie

He is going to work under the same policies which hampered Ottis Gibson.


What is wrong with Dr.Cummins? Isn't she highly qualified to hold a position of authority in the running of WI cricket?

It is people like you who envy educated persons such as Dr.Cummins who use logic, rational thought and common sense in dealing with complex issues but fall head over heels for "EDUCATED FOOLS" such as those who currently run WI cricket coming up with idiotic decisions over and over and over.

In reply to Star

I asked how do you know. Little has been said about his appointment or who his assistants are or whether he asked for any of his own crew.

As for the rest of your post I'd like you to qualify what constitutes complex issues. I'm fascinated.

In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com

I am wondering whether the Author is a recognized Sports Journalists in the Region . I have yet to hear from Becca ; Cozier ; Fazeer et al regarding Simmons .

Perhaps they are awaiting their talking points from their Masters in the WICB . There exists in the Region a paucity of
serious Sports Journalists .

This is precisely why Cricket in the Region is Comatose , those who claim to be Sports Journalists are afraid to be critical of those in the governance of Cricket in the Region , and that is a big part of the problem .

In reply to Star

So you just heard grumblings and came up with that long list of crap. Go read the man contract and then make judgement as to what he is empowered to do or can't do.

I will repeat here as I said before, Simmons is a professional and he would have to read, understand and agree with the terms of the contract before he sign on the dotted line. Failing to do that means that he is just in it for the money which makes him no different from the cabal...

In reply to Kay

Sometimes it is easy to detect when someone lacks the ability to think logically.

A thoughtful person reading what you wrote above would conclude that because Mr.Simmonds is a professional, the contract he signed would have been mandated by him, making his boss Mr.Pybus irrelevant in his directives and the way forward as set out for the previous coach Ottis Gibson.

Try to think logically for a second. Mr. Gibson was given a contract which he, also as a professional would follow along the same reasoning you gave for Mr.Simmonds

That same contract would have included directives from his boss Mr.Pybus for him to follow as the way forward. Mr.Gibson was fired because he could not live up to the directives and the way forward as stipulated in his contract. He was deemed to be a failure.

Do you really believe that a few weeks after firing a coach for not meeting the expectations as set out in his contract, the boss is going to hire another coach and rewrite the directives and expectations in a new contract for him?

The answer is no because the boss will be admitting that his previous directives and the submissions he made to the WICB as the way forward for the coach was wrong and he, not the coach, is a failure.

Phil Simmonds is going to work for Mr.Pybus under Mr.Pybus terms and conditions approved by the WICB.

Get it in your head that Mr.Pybus is not working for Phil Simmonds.

This is reality my friend not make belief wishful thinking.

T

In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com

Is this question addressed to the Board ,
Cricket Fans ; the General Public , or all of the above .

My hope is that he would get a Honeymoon
period . But that may be unlikely due to
the fact that Cricket in the Region has been
a disaster for some years now .