Simmons waits on good news from CWI

JELANI BECKLES

PHIL Simmons said he is waiting on "good news" as Cricket West Indies (CWI) is set to make a decision on the next coach of the West Indies men's senior team.

CWI has narrowed down their options to three candidates – Simmons, current interim head coach of West Indies Floyd Reifer and former West Indies opener Desmond Haynes.

Simmons, who led Barbados Tridents to the 2019 Hero Caribbean Premier League T20 title, on Saturday night, told the media it would be great to be back at the helm.

"I would love to be back there too. We are all hoping for good news, it is three of us there. We have not heard who has won yet, so let's hope it's good news."

A CWI media release two weeks ago said the final round of interviews was set to be completed by last Friday.

Simmons, who had coaching stints in Zimbabwe, Ireland and Afghanistan, served as West Indies coach from 2015-16 before he was fired due to "differences in culture and strategic approach."

On winning the title with the Tridents, Simmons said, "It is an awesome feeling especially from where they were last year, so it is great that we could end up on top of the table."

Simmons credited his players' work ethic after a slow start to the tournament. "I think the defining factor is that we kept working hard and we kept believing that we could win the next game and win the next game and at the end we started playing proper cricket. We know at the beginning we weren't playing well. We played Guyana three times and all three times we had opportunities to beat them and we did not take it, so it was good to see us improving as we go along."

After losing four of their first six matches, the team was criticised in the Barbados media, before facing Trinbago Knight Riders, at Kensington Oval. Simmons said harsh words can sometimes work in your favour, as Tridents went on a roll winning five of the remaining seven matches including a victory over Guyana Amazon Warriors in the final.

"It only had one idiot really. I would not say the Barbados media just that idiot...we lost the first couple games in Barbados and people before the Trinidad (TKR) game (in Barbados) were hammering us and sometimes it motivates people, so I was glad that our players got motivated by the fact that people are putting us down and doubting what we can do."