West Indies coach Phil Simmons admitted yesterday that his decision to ban popular cricket commentator Mohammed from interviewing the regional players prior to the start of the second Test against Australia in Melbourne a few days ago, may have been a bit harsh, but he had to do it to protect his players.

His comments totally contradict a report by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) on Tuesday which stated that there was no ban on Mohammed. According to the report by the WICB management, “the team fully appreciates and understands the importance of the media towards providing information on the game as well as the growth and development of the sport.”

But yesterday on i95.5FM radio programme Simmons said he does not hold grudges and will approach Mohammed, whom he has known from Under-19 cricket, to tell him how he feels about what had transpired and sort things out.

In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com

Simmons is fast becoming a clown

In reply to FuzzyWuzzy

De WICB hired him.

The WICB has given us a wonderful lesson in selection and recruitment.

Backtracking after the media fallout.

If our practice session are not nearly up to what the Aussies are doing who should be making the changes ?

I do not think Simmonds will keep his job for a long period, he seem to be too impulsive and a poor politician for the position.

In reply to FuzzyWuzzy


So hold on...he as the coach, makes a decision, all be it one that was maybe not well thought out, and a bit knee jerkish, but it was made to try and support his players and achieve his objective of geeting optimum results.

He however is big enough to admit he did so, the WICB on the other hand true to the script..lies AGAIN...and Phil's the clown?

Integrity don't seem to count for much these days

In reply to DIEHARD

Breds Fazeer seh dem ban him.....

Di Board was asked for ah statement and they said no we have not banned Fazeer


Turns out di coach banned the players from speaking to Fazeer because he felt Fazeer was less than economical with the truth when reporting on a previous session..

Phil should stick to coaching.... tact and diplomacy is not his strength.

Fazeer is a drama queen and should be tolerated as such .......

surely these matters should have been dealt with by the team manager...... why is he there ?

team manager reading the book about elite umpiring now.

In reply to cricketest

Every time the WICB issues a statement, they put their foot in their mouth....

didn't the WICB just denied that anyone was banned?

In reply to ponderiver

So then..Fazeer is the clown for overreacting.


Phil made a decision..whatever it was, and fessed up to it when asked.

I guess I stand corrected, the WICB didn't lie...they .."misled" ..surely they knew what happened between Simmons and Fazeer, why not clear the air?

And if they didn't know, why not get the facts before issuing another statement of denial.

That's all they same to be good for.

Shaggy whould get a job as their new PR person "It wasn't me"

As predicted, the WICB is again caught in another "grave terminological inexactitude".

To quote myself from an earlier thread:

In reply to DIEHARD

I would imagine they the board spoke to the team manager who without any knowledge of Phil's fatwa on mohammed Fazeer correctly stated there was no ban.

What it is obvious is that Phil is trying to stamp his authority on proceedings.

It would also appear that he is very much doing his own thing

In reply to jacksprat

If the ban won't go to Mohammed, Mohammed will go to the ban

In reply to FanAttick

In reply to ponderiver

This guy continues to shoot and then ask questions later. One of these days he will end up shooting himself in the wrong place..

simmmons is proving to be naive at best

I can't see how he continues on the job. He's too unstable

In reply to FuzzyWuzzy

It's funny that you use that word because Faz was banned for essentially saying the same thing to the WI players.

According to a reliable source, Faz was walking practice telling the players they had a real coach and did not want him, and now they have a coach who does not have a clue. Pretty classless way for Faz to act around the WI players, who apparently complained to management about him.

In reply to FuzzyWuzzy

Can you just imagine how much worse the team would have done if Mohammed was allowed to interview players before the match…….WOW! …..dat a boy Simmo – dats coaching at its best…..

fuzzy seh clown

+plenty

In reply to FanAttick

Simmons may have banned Fazeer, but not the WICB

Wake up people, 2016 fast approaching!

Fuss time allyou hear a coach ban a frigging media guy who may think he can ask an out of place question?!!
May have even made a stupid statement that upset a player or two. Some of those media think you can ask or say anything.

In reply to camos

Theres media access and media brashness. Some exploit the access to mean anything goes.

The person banned has said some borderline inane things on air, so not surprised if he is more fatuous off;lots of them are that way!!
Some who never pkayed at any high level(like a lot of us) act as if they are the most expert on cricket on the field-mostly after the fact.

In reply to Scar

What was the question in question?

In reply to ponderiver
This is what the manager said, Team manager and soon to be ICC referee Richie Richardson defended his players' approach to their work.

He felt it was no different from the attitude of the stars of the 80's and 90's whose efforts were not criticised because they were winning.

"When we were doing well we used to be pretty cool, pretty laid back, pretty lackadaisical," Richardson told the ABC.

"People saw it as being cool. Now with the same approach, attitude, (people say) they're not interested and stuff like, so we have to be very, very careful, we have to be cognisant of that as well."

In reply to denoke

You believe that crap, Richie took over from Viv and WI started downwards soon after. Under Richie maybe but not under Viv and Lloyd. Allyou know better Richie covering before dem say that slackness started under him by adding Viv and dem did it too!

In reply to nick2020

Read Pondie's post again about ...sorta less than truthful