Melbourne: With Phil Simmons deciding to step down as head coach of the West Indies men’s team in the aftermath of the side’s debacle in the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia currently underway, Cricket West Indies (CWI) will soon begin the search for a new tactician with the ICC 50-over World Cup coming up in India next year and the next T20 World Cup they would be co-hosting with the United States in 2024.
It was a disappointing tournament for the two-time champions, who won just won match — against Zimbabwe in the preliminary group stage — and were bundled out in the First Round, with Brandon King emerging the highest run-getter (79) and Alzarri Joseph managing six wickets. This pretty much sums up how pedestrian the two-time champions were in Australia.
When it all clicked for the Caribbean side, they looked good and this was the case when they cruised to a 31-run triumph over Zimbabwe in Hobart. They got a strong contribution from pacer Alzarri Joseph (4/16) on that occasion and his six wickets at an economy rate less than seven was probably the biggest positive to come out of the tournament for the side.
Veteran all-rounder Jason Holder was also quite consistent, with the 30-year-old adding 42 runs from two innings to his decent haul of five wickets. However, pretty much everything went wrong with them in their campaign Down Under, and it all started before they even reached Australia when hard-hitter Shimron Hetmyer missed his flight and was dropped from the squad, reportedly due to disciplinary issues.
It didn’t get much better from that point on with the West Indies’ batting line-up struggling to find much fluency and skipper Nicholas Pooran unable to make much of an impact either, according to a report in ICC. The news that veteran coach Phil Simmons will step down from his position at the end of the year was the final straw for the West Indies, who will now look to rebuild with a new coach at the helm and a relatively new captain in Pooran.
With the West Indies already promising a full review into their disappointing T20 World Cup campaign, they must also ensure they find a suitable candidate for the post of head coach. The good old days for West Indies cricket are seemingly over and a new coach must ensure the new breed of players are committed with next year’s 50-over World Cup in India their next big task.
Following that they must make sure they are competitive once again when sharing hosting rights with the USA for the 2024 T20 World Cup.
–IANS