Simmons willing to return to head coach post

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Former West Indies head coach Phil Simmons would consider returning to the position, once his current contract with Afghanistan comes to an end following this year’s World Cup in England and Wales.

Simmons, who celebrates his 56th birthday on April 18, was fired from the position three years ago, but came to an amicable settlement with Cricket West Indies, following the election two Sundays ago of Ricky Skerritt to the post of president and Dr. Kishore Shallow to the position of vice president, after a long-running, legal challenge to his dismissal.

“At the mo­ment, I am con­tract­ed to Afghanistan and there can be no talk about West In­dies crick­et,” he said in a radio interview with I95 FM in his native Trinidad.

“I’m fo­cused on Afghanistan and how we get ready for the Crick­et World Cup start­ing in May. But af­ter the Fi­nals on Ju­ly 15, my con­tract is up with Afghanistan, but no­body knows the fu­ture . ..

My whole aim now is to win the World Cup, so af­ter Ju­ly 15, let us see what hap­pens.”

Simmons added: “Every­one who knows me un­der­stands how much I love this re­gion and how hard it has been for me over the last three years deal­ing with that mat­ter. I am just glad it is over, and my name has been cleared.

“Most im­por­tant­ly, the apol­o­gy from the new pres­i­dent Ricky Sker­ritt goes a long way in clear­ing up a lot of the talk un­der the pre­vi­ous ad­min­is­tra­tion. I be­lieve that this shows that this new team is about the in­ter­est of crick­et and not about them­selves.”

Sim­mons, a former West Indies opener and part-time fast-medium bowler, claimed he had experienced many ills during his period as West In­dies coach, although he enjoyed suc­cess with the team, winning the 2016 ICC World T20 in India.

He said he was surprised to hear that Dave Cameron had lost the presidency of CWI to Skerritt, but he was looking forward to a different approach from the new administration.

“I was very hap­py for all of those that love West In­dies crick­et,” he said. “How many per­sons know who is in charge of the Eng­land Crick­et Board? And how many cricket board pres­i­dents are on tele­vi­sion or busy tweet­ing? West In­dies crick­et can look for­ward to Ricky and Dr. Shal­low and that is the pos­i­tive go­ing for­ward.”

Skerritt and Shallow unseated Cameron and Emmanuel Nanthan 8-4 for the top posts in West Indies cricket.