Cricket West Indies (CWI) announces the appointment of former West Indies player, Phil Simmons as the Head Coach of the West Indies Senior Men’s Team for a period of four years, as well as the appointment of three new selection panels.
Phil Simmons was confirmed as the Head Coach during a meeting of the CWI Board of Directors on Monday, following the conclusion of a short but intensive recruitment process. The Board had made it clear prior to the start of the recruitment process in September that “persons without West Indian heritage need not apply.”
Simmons served previously for a short period as Head Coach of the West Indies Senior Men’s team, during which he coached the team to the 2016 ICC T20 World Cup title, following which he was controversially dismissed. He served since as the Head Coach of Afghanistan, who he helped qualify for the first time for the 2019 ICC ODI CWC. His tenure as head coach of Ireland, saw them improve their ICC rankings and qualify for all major ICC events. Simmons’ latest coaching success came just two days ago when he coached the Barbados Tridents to the 2019 Hero Caribbean Premier League title with an impressive victory over the Guyana Amazon Warriors in Saturday’s Final.
CWI President, Ricky Skerritt shared his thoughts on the confirmation of Phil Simmons: “Bringing Phil Simmons back is not just righting a past wrong, but I am confident that CWI has chosen the right man for the job at the right time. I want to also thank the very talented Floyd Reifer for the hard work he put in while he was the interim coach.”
CWI’s Director of Cricket Jimmy Adams said: “I am happy, after a very robust recruitment process, at the appointment of Phil to the role of Head Coach. I have no doubt that Phil brings the requisite leadership skills and experience needed to drive improvement across our international squads and I look forward to supporting him in the role.”
CWI also announces the appointment of three new Men’s, Women’s and Girls’ Panel, and Boys’ Selection Panel following a recruitment process that ran parallel to the selection of the new coach. The recommendation of a new CWI selection structure and policy were the main outputs of the report of the Selection System Review Task Force, presented by Vice President Shallow at the September Board meeting in Tobago. Eighteen candidates were considered and evaluated for the five positions across the three Selection Panels. The CWI recruitment panel unanimously selected the following candidates who have now been confirmed: WI Men’s Panel Lead Selector: Roger Harper, Selector: Miles Bascombe, WI Women’s & Girls’ Panel Lead Selector: Ann Browne-John, Selector: Travis Dowlin and WI Boys’ Panel Talent ID Manager: Robert Haynes. (St. Lucia News Online)