Two-time World Twenty20 champions the Caribbean failed to progress beyond the qualifying stages of the ongoing World Twenty20 tournament. Simmons then decided to step down as the team’s head coach.
Phil Simmons, the head coach of the West Indies senior men’s team, has announced that he will resign from his position after the two-match Test series against Australia.
Senior cricket analyst Joseph ‘Reds’ Pereira shared his views on the head coach and said. “I don’t think that he’ll be remembered as a successful coach by any means. If you look at the win-loss situation, it speaks for itself. What Caribbean people felt at the time is that he should have been given a two-year contract instead of four years outright. We were expecting to see an improvement in the side and we didn’t quite see that.”
West Indies’ last Test tour of Australia was in 2016 when they lost the three-match series 2-0 and their last series win on Australian soil was 29 years ago.
According to Pereira, this tour will be a very testing time for the team with Kraig Brathwaite.
“We just have to wait and see. Australia just had a major disappointment of not making it to the semis of the T20 World Cup, but that will not be reflected in their Test selection. Their Test selections are going to be strong and I think playing at Perth will favour the Australian fast bowlers, and it will be very testing times for our players.”
Many senior players did not want to represent the West Indies team and several others had arguments with the cricket board and the coaches. Pereira argues that Simmons was frustrated by the lack of players on several occasions.
“During his (Phil Simmons) tenure players became unavailable for a set tour, and that didn’t quite help him. Some of the players were also not that keen on playing for the West Indies and that has been happening for some time now.”
“I think that some players didn’t seem to work hard enough on their game and didn’t seem to be able, when the pressure is on in the middle, to make the adjustments. They seem to have lacked the fight and determination and we didn’t see that resolute effort.”
However, the senior cricket analyst says Simmons must take responsibility for his players’ obvious and ongoing struggles.
“It is the coach who should calls the practice sessions, and decide whether some players need special attention.”