Simmons blasts T2O absentees

Former West Indies coach 
Phil Simmons.
Former West Indies coach Phil Simmons.

RENALDO MATADEEN

FORMER West Indies head coach, Phil Simmons, has made it clear the team should not be begging any player to represent them. Speaking in response to Denesh Ramdin’s calls for Twenty20 (T20) support following sub-par performances on the Indian tour, Simmons indicated players need to want to represent the Caribbean outfit, a hunger which he just doesn’t see at present.

“Yeah, you can’t force people. You’ve got to have players who want to play for you,” he said to ESPN just before the Windies were whitewashed by the hosts in the three-match T20 series. Ramdin had earlier reiterated that while the squad needs their T20 stars such as Chris Gayle and Andre Russell, it’s tough for players of their calibre and demand to prioritise West Indies cricket over franchises because of the money they’ll earn.

“I don’t know what exactly he (Ramdin) was trying to say there, but from my point of view you cannot beg anyone to play for their country. I agree with him with that. But I know for a fact these players will have a give up a lot to play for their country,” Simmons added.

The current Afghanistan coach admitted, however, he would like to know what took place with the selection, before key players opted in and out the team. Kieron Pollard and Darren Bravo returned to the fold, but other notable absentees were Sunil Narine and Dwayne Bravo, who ultimately retired from international cricket. Several of these names had past issues with the West Indies Cricket Board over availability and Simmons was intrigued over who turned down selection and for whatever reasons, especially on the heels of such an emphatic series loss. “I know in my time as coach we had issues with selection. But the choices were with the selectors as to who to pick. It would be interesting to hear who was selected for this (series) before the absentees. But again, to what Denesh is saying, yeah, you can’t force people,” he concluded.

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