West Indies Head Coach Phil Simmons has thankfully done the right and honourable thing by submitting his resignation following the West Indies’ inglorious exit from the current 2022 ICC T20 World Cup. In so doing Simmons honourably heeded the heads must roll recurring refrain from thousands of West Indian cricket
fans via social media following the team’s ignominious World Cup exit. This latest World Cup humiliation representing as it does a further descent of West Indies cricket to the lowest of lows, demands the resignations of not just Simmons alone but several others as well.
Captain Pooran’s head should be one of the others that must now roll. Pooran as captain seemed completely out of his depth during the World Cup. His management of the West Indies bowling attack was at times mind-boggling in its inefficiency. There was a litany of errors from Pooran’s on-field captaincy throughout the World Cup.
The weighty responsibility of captaincy also seemed to have placed an unbearable burden on Pooran’s normally outstanding batting. He could hardly find a run during the tournament. Pooran’s scores from his three World Cup Qualification Round matches were 5, 7 and 13.
Next in line for the executioner’s block would be Phil Simmons’ entire coaching
crew, the World Cup strategic decision-making of which was at most times even more
bizarre than Pooran’s as captain. Simmons et al also failed to address any of the basic
weaknesses and inadequacies that have been plaguing West Indies’ white-ball cricket for
far too long. The demonstrated vulnerability of our batsmen to even the most basic slow
bowling, not to mention top-class spin. as well as their ongoing inability to rotate the strike
and reduce dot balls have been recurring themes. Regarding our bowling, there has been
no meaningful reduction of gifted boundary balls on the part of the West Indies bowlers.
Pooran, Simmons, Batting Coach Monty Desai and Bowling Assistant Roddy Estwick are
easily identifiable, most worthy, candidates as immediate pink slip recipients. But this
time around the cancerous malaise that has affected West Indies cricket requires even
deeper, less superficial, surgical cuts from those who will be placed in charge of the now
desperately needed repairs and restoration.
Cricket West Indies President Ricky Skerrit and his Vice President Dr Kishore Shallow
must now also be held accountable for this latest World Cup disgrace. It was the Skerritt-Shallow leadership combo that, back in October 2019, rushed to get rid of the former coach Richard Pybus as an excuse to rehire the previously fired Simmons and to present him with an unprecedented four-year contract. The inescapable reality
is that the Skerritt-Shallow now almost four-year CWI Presidential tenure has been an
unmitigated disaster of broken promises and unfulfilled objectives.
They too should be required to go. With the 2023 ICC 50 Over World Cup looming fast
on the horizon, as well as the West Indies’ scheduled hosting of the 2024 World Cup, no
time should now be wasted waiting another six months until next March for Skerritt and
Shallow’s final term to expire.
The curative knife should also go even deeper to the extent of
providing pink slips to the hierarchy of CWI’s Coolidge Cricket
Center Headquarters administrative personnel. CWI’s CEO Johnny
Grave has overseen an administration that has become comical for
its consistently occurring blunders and demonstrated incompetency.
From taped-over players’ shirts, outrageous ticket pricing, visa
acquisition bungling, sporadic communications and most recently to
the eighteen days prior announcement of participating teams, country
venues and match schedules for this year’s edition of the supposed
“Annual” Super50 tournament.
The bigger question to be asked is why the two most important
administrative positions in West Indies cricket are held by gents of
distinctly non-Caribbean ethnicity or heritage. Over 7 million people
now live within the Caribbean region and as many if not more of our
heritage are based overseas. Surely from among those millions there
must be two individuals, male or female, capable of administering our
cricket more efficiently and in a manner that would be much more in
tune with our societal and cultural needs.
With more competent coaches in charge of our teams, as well as
West Indies cricket overall being better structured, managed and
administered our players might then be motivated to give of their very
best more consistently. As fans and followers, we have had enough
of the roller-coaster emotions of encouraging highs, followed far too
frequently by the most disappointing lows!