Muirhead says ‘division’ caused Simmons axing

Simmons was fired as coach of the West Indies team after 18 months on Tuesday, with the WICB stating in a release that, “In a meeting of the Board of Directors, on Saturday, September 10, this decision was taken (to fire Simmons).

In recent times, based on the public pronouncements of the coach and the approach internally, we have identified differences in culture and strategic approach.

The WICB would therefore like to thank the coach for his contribution and wishes him the best in his future endeavours.” One of the policies of the West Indies Cricket Board that Simmons did not necessarily agree with was West Indies players were required to play in regional tournaments to be eligible to play for the senior team.

Concerning this matter Muirhead said, “That was a rule and he wanted us to address that and we were looking at it but it is not something that was immediate because we had our symposium and eligibility came up as to what makes you eligible to play. He may have his views on it but we need to be united as a management team whether it be team management or secretariat team, but management must come together and we have to put forward one position and when we have division in management then we have breakdown in everything.” There has been many changes in West Indies cricket over the last year. Clive Lloyd was removed as chairman of selectors, while Courtney Walsh (former West Indies selector) accepted a job as Bangladesh bowling coach recently. Sir Curtly Ambrose was replaced by Roddy Estwick as West Indies bowling coach and Darren Sammy was replaced by Carlos Brathwaite as West Indies T20 captain.

Asked whether the constant change of personnel recently will be an unsettling experience for the team and a concern for the West Indies cricket fans Muirhead said, “Not only the West Indies public (is concerned) I am very concerned. We are number eight and we are still at number eight in two formats of the game. We were at number nine that is why we did not qualify for the Champions Trophy so it is of great concern to all that we have not moved and I think as we find the right combination it will lift the team.” Muirhead explained that all variables need to be looked at such as the available talent, developing talent, quality of coaches and leadership of coaches to determine why we are not moving up the ladder in the rankings.

West Indies have been succeeding in T20 cricket but have been below par in Test and One Day International (ODI) cricket. “We are doing well in T20 but that it is not enough for us we need to make sure that we establish ourselves in the cricket world which is really defined by ODI and Tests.” The WICB CEO added that its hierachy was also at loggerheads with the former coach over his training methods. In an interview with Sportsmax yesterday, he said officials wanted a more uptempo training session than what the ex-Ireland coach was conducting.

He noted that with poor Test and ODI results, it only confirmed their belief that his training methods were not getting the best out of the team. Muirhead did not address though why Simmons’ results were blamed on his training methods and not the Windies policy of not picking its best team due to the policy by Director of Cricket Richard Pybus to deem persons not competing in the regional tournaments ineligible for the West Indies in that format.

Henderson Springer and Roddy Estwick will act as the interim coaches of the regional team while a replacement is chosen for Simmons.