Davis in favour of regional coach for WI team

EX-NATIONAL and West Indies opening batsman Bryan Davis is in favour of a regional coach for the WI team.

On Monday, Cricket West Indies (CWI) issued a media release, stating WI team fielding coach, South Africa-born Nic Pothas, will serve as interim coach during the current tour of Bangladesh, replacing Stuart Law. Ex-Australia batsman Law, who was appointed as WI coach on a two-year contract in January 2017, announced his intention to resign after this Bangladesh trip to take up a contract with English county team Middlesex.

Floyd Reifer, former WI captain and current coach of the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC), was part of the WI technical staff in India during the limited-overs series, leading speculation that he may be earmarked for the WI coaching job.

Davis, in a recent interview, said, “I don’t like the idea of looking abroad. I like West Indians to coach West Indians. I thought the best coach we had was Phil Simmons. He was very good. I believe it should be somebody in the West Indies.”

Last week, former WI opener Desmond Haynes stated his desire to succeed Law.

“I don’t know the credentials of Desmond Haynes (as a coach),” Davis said. “I was his first manager when he made his debut on the West Indies in ’78. One thing I didn’t like (is) when he said he thinks the team could (grow) with the captains (Jason) Holder and (Carlos) Brathwaite.”

During the recent tour of India, the West Indies suffered whitewashes in both the Test (2-0) and T20 series (3-0). They also fell to a 3-1 loss in the five-game One-Day International (ODI) series.

Holder, the regular Test and ODI captain, will miss the tour of Bangladesh due to a shoulder injury. Kraigg Brathwaite will lead the squad in the two-Test series, with the First Test in Chittagong starting tonight, and the Second Test in Dhaka from November 30 to December 4.

The three-match ODI series will take place from December 9-14 and the three-game T20 series will be contested from December 17-22.

Asked if this tour of Bangladesh is a chance to use new captains, especially in the T20 series (Carlos Brathwaite is the current WI T20 skipper), Davis replied, “As far as the ODI is concerned, it’s too close to the World Cup to try any new person now. It will be unfair to a new person coming up to adjust to that, especially in a losing team.

“I think that, right after the ODI (World Cup) next year, they should start to experiment with a new T20 captain. They should have a coach established by then, hopefully somebody who knows what they’re doing.”

The WI selection panel, comprising Courtney Browne, Travis Dowlin, Eldine Baptiste and Lockhart Sebastien, only made one change to the 15-man Test team from the India tour, with Raymon Reifer replacing fellow all-rounder Holder.

“You can’t keep losing teams,” said Davis. “We are struggling to get teams out, they’re making plenty runs off us, in every format of the game, and we are struggling to make runs. Our batting is not strong and our bowling is weak.”

Davis has high hopes for Jamaican fast bowler Oshane Thomas (who was not chosen in the Test squad) and Guyanese Keemo Paul.

“Let me tell you who I like – Oshane Thomas and (Keemo) Paul, those are good cricketers that any coach could work on and (get) results,” said Davis. “(Shannon) Gabriel, Thomas, Paul, you have them there.”