CHATTOGRAM, Bangladesh (CMC) — Head Coach Phil Simmons was frank in his assessment of West Indies following their chastening whitewash here yesterday, lamenting the lack of “heart and character” shown in the three-match series.

The Caribbean side failed to seriously challenge the hosts in any department, losing all three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) comprehensively on the back of woeful batting performances.

“I think our performance has been under par. I don't think we batted as well as we can do,” Simmons said following his side's 120-run defeat at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium here.

“The bowling wasn't that bad — on this wicket, to limit them to under 300 has been good but our batting has been poor throughout the series.”

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In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com

Wow!!!!!

A coach is running out of excuses to save his own neck. He has had ample time and opportunity to instill these values and character traits in his troops. He has actually indicted himself. What a thing.

CWI, I hope you realize that this neck is not worth saving.

A cursory look at his coaching record will admit this and perhaps you can undertake a more comprehensive performance appraisal to confirm it.

Failure to put Simmons to pasture means you are also complicit in the execution of West Indies cricket.

In reply to Courtesy the problem goes deeper than him i don't care who you put as coach the results are going to be the same.

In reply to velo

I agree the problem is systemic and needs to be addressed since yesteryear. What about the New Zealand series?

That being said, what if Simmons was employed as part of a holistic plan to address the urgent problems. Is he assisting in achieving that goal?

Further, if a coach brings nothing to the table to assist in reversing the dire situation in our cricket, then CWI should not be throwing away its financial resources in employing a coach who is totally useless.

There are many other ways to justify this spend on the coach and the rest of his staff. CWI does not have the luxury of taking onboard this tremendous opportunity cost.

Plenty of money spent on coaching staff = zero returns. Is this acceptable to any respectable organization?

Lastly. it seems you have thrown your hands in the air...I never do this. My mantra is: "where there is life there is hope."

In reply to Courtesy

I agree the problem goes deeper than Phil. Just smiling though because if it was a certain coach in charge people would be screaming for blood or a different captain might have been called clueless.
Let's see what happens when test series start.

In reply to Courtesy

mi know seh yuh is a wordsmith but di you really mean systematic and not systemic.... hasking for a friend

In reply to ponderiver



"Yes, you are right."

I meant systemic. Thanks for being so wide-eyed. Now that should be eagle-eyed too.

Noted and action taken.

Well in Phil’s defense this was a third string squad that was poorly selected, had no serious preparation and lost two of its better players to COVID 19. Never the less Phil and the board has to answer the questions as to why hasn’t the team become better under his tenure? why have we not been able move John Campbell and Brooks further along in their development? Why does Chase and Brathwaite continue to regress? why is our first team captain still making rookie mistakes in his field settings and of course why is our bench so weak? Cuz make no mistake even at full strength we would have struggled to beat Bangladesh, they beat us at full strength 9 successive times before this series. The hope was that at least at full strength we may have caught them napping and win one game or made the series more competitive, but let’s not take this series out of the context of the general poor state of West Indies cricket, which the coach and the board should address.

In reply to TyTy35

Agreed. The state of our one day cricket is so poor that there is absolutely no guarantee that the First Team would have done appreciably better. I feel sorry for these guys. A lot of them must have been dreaming of playing for the West Indies for many years and it is unfair for them to be judged on these performances and then criticized by the coach. The fault lies a lot in the planning of the tour. not sufficient time to acclimatize, no warm up games and all of this after being in a bubble. These guys were basically set up to lose. I would give them a bye and not write off any of them

Definitely not a referendum on Simmons as a coach. The squad was underprepared and under-strength.

Not getting any points from this series already puts WI in a hole when it comes to automatic qualification. Afghanistan for example just picked up 30 in their series.

sorry to sound like this this man got be stupid what else did he expect if u have no ability no skill set or knowledge as to dealing with the problem
before u then there is no way heart or character can manifest it self it was known to every body expect the officials that this team was going to embarrass
it self and Caribbean Simmons say they can only go upward from here has this man been living on planet earth we have been on a down word spiel for 20 years.

In reply to VoopsandOut

I agree and I really hope players like Harding or McCarty are not written off by this administration, because despite his appalling dismissals in both games McCarthy is still one of our better list A players with an average of almost 36. The fact that he has been playing regional cricket for 7 years and not able to grasp the opportunity that this tour gave him is disappointing, and you could definitely argue he was set up to fail but my question is this series was abysmal so what do we do now? Seems the the coach's answer is just blame the players and move on to the next ones.

In reply to ponderiver


When H&H had the reigns strange that they never incorporated his suggestions.Isn't he related to Hunte?

Now Piton head comes here bawling murder.

In reply to sgtdjones

Phil will be returning home in a month, what will be his role, until the next tour?

In reply to openning

CWI Board will determine what is role will be based on his contract.

blaming it all on the coach is a bit too much ...
the selectors, the system and the politics of the ecoSystem in WI ...thats where it needs to start.
you cannot wait for a Shiv a Lara or a Darren to show up every now and then to save WI' cricket!
A measured process is needed.
To build teams.
And the world cricket needs WI cricket to do well.
Aint happening in short order tho'

In reply to Courtesy

Simmons brings nothing to the table except for a knife & fork ....

In reply to Blackbird

In reply to Lungidi2017

Darren?

Are you speaking of the untalented, hide from bowling the ball one who was placed by his henchmen to lead a group of players honed to world class and professionalism by virtue of their innate (Gayle/Sarwan/Narine) talent and international T-20 exposure along with a healthy dose of Marlon Samuels coming good at the right moment?

Is he the one you speak of in the same breath as Shiv and Lara?
Please remind me when the "Darren" you speak of saved WI cricket.

Bartender, the drinks too strong.

In reply to ponderiver
Bro what is wrong with "systemic" meaning organization wide?

the failure of this tour is more than the coach, it is straight up a bad management decision to send such a low quality team,hard to see any other result from this group. Still I have questions about Simmo, but won't use this tour in his evaluation.

it is probably at least 60% poor planning of the tour but the coach should man up and not just blame the players, especially since they are inexperienced at this level and have not been playing ODI cricket for several months even at home

In reply to camos

Pondie is correct. I used "systematic" when I meant "systemic." The edit was made subsequently.

Anytime the topic of a player or coach's inept performance comes up here, someone always surface to remind folks of that one time they win a trophy or score a match winning century.

West Indians are only too happy and satisfied with their one hit wonders ....

In reply to TyTy35

Did you actually see McCarthy bat?

Set up to fail? He was completely at sea in both innings. He looked like a bat was a strange implement that he was introduced to for the very first time.

Nah man. No coaching can help that.

He’s simply NGE

Blackbird said, "Simmons brings nothing to the table except for a knife & fork"


The above bears repeating. Lol

In reply to Blackbird

You obviously don't like big belly man.

In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com

Lack of Heart and Character are also missing in the Worst International
Cricket Board in the Commonwealth .

There is ample proof of this Fact .
Imagine an Entity that is over 100 years old , and has not done much to
change its archaic Structure .

In reply to imusic

lol.

Poorly selected team.

In reply to imusic

Yes dude played two terrible shots, but that doesn't mean the guy cant bat. I've been watching Dada play from under 19 stage he is a very aggressive batsman who hits the ball hard to all parts of the ground, he was batting in a pressure situation and felt he needed to hit out out, which was dumb, then repeated that mistake in the second match after the team after had just lost 3 quick wickets once again dumb and he was deservedly dropped. But the true test of character is how he adjusts to this setback, he has the regional 50 over cup, he can either learn to apply his talent and focus on building an inning or he can fall back into what has worked for him in the past in these competitions and just try to hit every ball for six either way lets see what they do after this disastrous series and not just decided oh well these guys are useless.

It takes a lot of heart and character to be sleeping on the job in broad daylight when millions are watching ...

In reply to velo

Ask Bypus.(Pybus)