Phil Simmons sacked as West Indies coach

West Indies coach Phil Simmons has been sacked after a string of poor performances by the national team in Tests. He is understood to have been informed about the termination of his contract on Tuesday.

An all-rounder with an experience of 26 Tests and 143 ODIs, Simmons played international cricket for West Indies from 1987 to 1999. Post his playing career, he ventured into coaching, and was appointed the head coach of the Zimbabwean cricket team in 2004. Financial and administrative problems led to his controversial sacking in August 2005.

He then moved to Ireland, succeeding Adrian Birrell as the head coach of the national side. Ireland had a fairly successful run under Simmons, and won as many as 11 trophies, also qualifying for every major ICC event.

After his tenure in Ireland, he accepted an offer to take over the coaching reins of West Indies post the 2015 World Cup. Although the team won the World T20 this year, the Test side has been plagued by a continual poor run of form, as well as regular run-ins of the players with the West Indies Cricket Board.

Recently, Darren Sammy, who led the team to the World T20 triumph earlier this year, was sacked after a ‘30-second phone call’, and took to social media to post a video announcing the sacking and thanking fans for their support.

The West Indies side is scheduled to play two T20Is and three ODIs against the UAE. Incidentally, Simmons was shown the door on the day the side was supposed to depart for the series. Although there has been no confirmation of the identity of his replacement, names such as Jimmy Adams and Richard Pybus are doing the rounds. Adams is currently the head of the Kent County Cricket Club, whereas Pybus is the current director of cricket.

After the Test series loss against India, Simmons had said that he was disappointed by the ‘up and down series’. He was briefly suspended last year after trouble brew up between him and the board after the former declared that he “he could not choose the best squad” for the series against Sri Lanka. Although the T20 team won the world title under him this year, the Test team could garner only one victory in the 14 Tests that Simmons was the head coach.