Aussie coach turns down WI job

In another slap in the face for the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), the man they chose to be head coach of the senior West Indies team has turned down the offer.

Australian academy coach Bennett King has officially notified the WICB he would not be accepting the job and would instead remain an employee of the Australian Cricket Board (ACB). King’s about-face comes amidst controversy about the way his selection for the job was handled by the Board. The Australian was upset when the Board announced the news before he had a chance to discuss a contract and made it clear there were issues to sort out with his family.

In an interview with CaribbeanCricket.com, he made it clear his hiring as West Indies coach was far from a done deal. Sources say King’s decision to pass up the job offer was communicated to executives at the WICB’s Antigua headquarters on Monday. The Board is expected to announce that assistant coach Gus Logie will land the job on a fulltime basis. It is not clear if Logie will have an assistant. King will remain head coach of the ACB’s Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy.

King spent the last few days discussing a possible move to the Caribbean with his family, but decided instead to remain in his ACA job. He said: “It wasn’t a decision I came to lightly. I decided (that) at this point in time, I’m going to learn much more from the Australian way.” He said he had thought long and hard before rejecting the West Indies offer. “It’s a high profile job and one with a very high profile side. I can’t think of too many higher coaching positions than the West Indies. “But I did my research and I don’t make decisions with my eyes closed.”

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) announced King as their new coach last week “subject to completion of contractual negotiations.” They hoped he would agree to take over in July, with Gus Logie taking charge for the home series against Australia and Sri Lanka in the intervening period. But King always insisted, “no terms and conditions had been spoken about or offered.” King and his wife have three children, who are all settled in schools in Brisbane, where he previously worked as coach of the Queensland state side. Roger Harper was the previous full-time coach of the West Indies team but his contract expired following the World Cup and he was not offered an extension.