THE WEST Indies now appear likely to turn to former Test player Phillip Verant Simmons of Trinidad and Tobago to take them out of the doldrums of disappointing finishes.

Just as it was on previous occasions when Malcolm Marshall, Roger Harper, Gus Logie, Bennett King and David Moore took the reins of the team, the question has been asked - what will he bring to the table?

Simmons played 26 Tests and 143 one-day internationals (ODIs) for the West Indies. As an opener he only managed one Test century, a score of 110 against Australia in Melbourne in the 1992-93 series. In his many ODIs, he proved more successful with five hundreds and 18 half centuries, which isn't much.

As a coach he hasn't done much better. He first faced the pressures of the international job coaching Zimbabwe, an episode that ended in tears after he was deemed too nice to deal with the stresses of coaching an international team, especially one fraught with the kind of trouble that currently abides in that country.

No commitment yet

Simmons then turned his attentions to Ireland after the Cricket World Cup in the West Indies and, to my knowledge, that has gone a little better but still has not cemented his name in the class of 'good coach'.

Maybe he is a good coach and maybe he can bring something to West Indies cricket that has been missing. However, unfortunately for Simmons, I think he has yet again taken up a post that nobody else should want, a post that will do more harm to your reputation than good.

In the Caribbean, the dynamics that have led to the decline of West Indies cricket reach so much further than coaching at the highest level that it will take a remarkable coach to circumvent that.

Just take a look at the quality that preceded him.

Lets go back to the late great, Malcolm Denzil Marshall.

After he retired from the game, his county cricket team, Hampshire, invited him to coach and he did a fair enough job to be recognised by West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). By the time his chemotherapy for colon cancer had failed a year later, however, he was one of the names being touted as the reason for the West Indies' failure.

After him came Harper. At the time, poor fielding was one of the reasons given for West Indies' perennial failings. However, Harper, the ace fielder as a Test player, never made much impact and left the job to manage the youth team before going on to coach Kenya.

Logie came next and the West Indies looked to be turning the proverbial corner, yet again.

Few good results

Logie achieved a few good results but before you knew what hit you, he was also sent packing. There is speculation that Logie wasn't getting the respect of the players and an international flavour was needed to spice up West Indies.

Along came King and we all know how that went! The West Indies have had their worst period in recorded history under that coach and I'm not sure if he wasn't a good coach either.

His heir apparent was Moore and he could make no headway either.

Why will Simmons be any different? He is hugely popular with players because of his outgoing personality but will this help the West Indies?

I'm inclined to say no. There are no techniques 'Big Phil' understands that weren't well known to the coaches before him. There is no dynamic in the Caribbean he understands better than Marshall, Harper or Logie, so what can he do?

My suggestion is to focus on the younger players and find ways of getting better coaches at the younger levels.

Until there is a revamping of the approach to cricket with young boys, it doesn't matter which coach we get. And we do need the help at that level lest we forget that the West Indies Under-19s just got bowled out for 18!

Good luck to Phil, and I hope his failure won't be held against him when he goes after another coaching job in the near future.

Feedback; Paul-Andre. Walker@gleanerjm.com