Adams: CWI to decide on interim or full-time coach soon

DIRECTOR of cricket at Cricket West Indies (CWI) Jimmy Adams is hoping concrete decisions will be made in the coming week concerning the new head coach of West Indies including whether to hire an interim coach or a full-time coach.

On October 24, Phil Simmons resigned from his position as West Indies coach after the regional team failed to advance to the main draw of the International Cricket Council T20 World Cup in Australia. Simmons said his decision to leave the job was not based solely on the West Indies performance in the World Cup qualifiers.

Simmons will continue to coach West Indies until December as the team will play Australia in a two-match Test series in Australia.

Discussions are being held by CWI whether to have different coaches for different formats.

“Those discussions are actually ongoing, they have already started,” Adams said in media conference on Sunday.

Adams said other than deciding whether to hire multiple coaches for the various formats it will be decided if an interim coach will be appointed.

“There are two issues to look at. Obviously given the schedule that we have which is Test cricket in Zimbabwe and South Africa from the end of the January right through until (March)…I think the white ball games against South Africa will go into March. Do we first of all split the roles and how long are we going to give ourselves the time in which to recruit? By that I mean is it that we are going to do an interim situation maybe until the end of the South Africa (tour) or do we actually start recruiting right away (for a full-time coach). These are decisions that are before us now and I am hoping that by the end of this week coming that we will have some firm decisions to sort of guide the way forward…these are all the questions being considered right now as we speak.”

The West Indies Test players have been competing at a higher level compared to the T20 and 50-Over teams.

Asked if Simmons was encouraged to continue coaching the Test team given the success the team has had in the format, Adams said, “It is something that he (Simmons) did consider. He would have known as we all do that the role in some countries is a split role, but he did indicate that after considering it that the decision that he said to us was his final decision.”