Phil Simmons, who was the head coach of the West Indies senior men’s team, resigned from the post after the tour of Australia at the end of last year.
Accordingly, Andre Coley was appointed as the interim coach for Simmons’ gap and he will take charge of the team for the upcoming tours of Zimbabwe and South Africa.
West Indies Inter coach Andre Coley says he has decided to put things right in the next two months rather than take over the position of West Indies senior coach permanently.
“The focus for me, at the moment, is what’s in front of me, so the next two and a half months is really important, and that’s the period that I have been engaged for.”
In his first interaction with the media yesterday, when asked if he would be interested in a full-time appointment, he said,
“I suppose when that time comes around and that process is put on the table, then I will give that some consideration. Having accepted this interim role, that should be indication enough of an interest.”
Coley became West Indies’ ninth interim coach since 2000, behind a list that included Gus Logie, David Moore, Henderson Springer, David Williams, Stuart Williams, Nick Pothas, Richard Pybus, and Floyd Reifer.
He has previously been the head coach of the West Indies U19 team, assistant coach of the West Indies men’s and women’s teams, as well as the head coach of the Jamaica Scorpions and the Windward Islands Volcanoes.
In 2016, he was the assistant coach of the West Indies men’s team that won the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, and earlier this year he was the assistant coach of the Jamaica Tallawahs when they won the Caribbean Premier League title.
However, when asked if he had applied for the job, Coley added that he “doesn’t know where that (selection) process is at the moment.”
However, asked if he had applied for the job, he added that he was “unaware of where that (selection) process is at the moment.” Also, He added though that, “I suppose when that process is put on the table then I’ll give that some consideration.”
Commenting on his immediate goals for the squad, Coley said he wanted to, “build rapport with the players.”
Elaborating further on it, Coley said,
“We’ve already started those conversations, Kraigg and myself in terms of how we will operate on the tours and just be clear on how we want to approach things, inclusive of support staff and players.”
Also, the interim coach explained that the trips to Africa are important for the morale of the team.
“These upcoming series against Zimbabwe and South Africa give us tremendous opportunity to actually regain some confidence following on from recent months, and as we approach the middle of the year against India, looking to build on that confidence we would have gained over the upcoming two to three months.”
Earlier in West Indies cricket, coley had developed relationships with many of the team’s players at various levels and hoped that experience would stand him in good stead.
“I would have had relationships with the different players across the squad and (I’m) looking to leverage that,” he said, “to even grow that and use that as a tool that we can utilise in terms of assisting with our planning.”