The two-time world champions West Indies had to Eliminate the first round of the 2022 Twenty20 World Cup and return home early. They played 3 matches in the first round and lost to Scotland and Ireland.
Directly after this humiliating defeat, many accused the coaches and administration of taking full responsibility for the defeat. Accordingly, the head coach, Phil Simmons, has announced his resignation. he said,
“I acknowledge that it’s not just the team that is hurting but the proud nations we represent as well. It’s disappointing and heart-wrenching but we just didn’t turn up. We weren’t good enough and we now have to watch a tournament play out without our involvement. It’s unfathomable and for that, I deeply apologize to our fans and followers.”
“From a personal perspective this is not a knee-jerk reaction, but a move I have been considering for some time, and now is the time to make public that I will step down as West Indies Head Coach at the end of the Test series against Australia.”
Simmons’ last assignment as West Indies head coach will be the tour of Australia. The crucial task for West Indies the following year (2023) begins on February 28 with an all-format tour to South Africa and ends on March 28.
CWI’s Director of Cricket, Jimmy Adams, revealed that talks are currently underway to hire an interim head coach to Phil Simmons’ vacancy until the team’s tour of South Africa.
Accordingly, Adams said the CWI would decide by the end of this week whether it would name a temporary coach for the senior men’s squad of the West Indies or a number of coaches for various formats.
As quoted by ESPNcricinfo, Adams had said,
“There are two issues to look at. Obviously, given the schedule that we have, which is Test cricket in Zimbabwe and South Africa from the end of January right through until (March)…I think the white-ball games against South Africa will go into March.”
“Do we, first of all, split the roles and how long are we going to give ourselves the time in which to recruit? By that I mean, is it that we are going to do an interim situation maybe until the end of South Africa (tour), or do we actually start recruiting right away (for a full-time coach). These are decisions that are before us now and I am hoping that by the end of this week coming that we will have some firm decisions to sort of guide the way forward…these are all the questions being considered right now as we speak.”
Simmons has been in charge of the West Indies side since 2015 and captained the Caribbean team to their second Twenty20 World Cup title in 2016 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.