Khan lauds appointment of ‘meticulous’ Coley as West Indies coach

FORMER TRINIDAD and Tobago and West Indies manager Omar Khan as lauded the appointment of former Jamaica wicketkeeper Andre Coley as the interim WI coach, for the forthcoming tours of Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Coley’s appointment was announced by Cricket West Indies (CWI) on Thursday, and he takes over from Phil Simmons, who ended his second stint as WI coach after the Test team’s 2-0 series sweep to hosts Australia earlier this month. Simmons stated his intention to step down as coach following WI’s failure to advance beyond the first round of the T20 World Cup (also in Australia) in October.

Coley is the lead coach of the CWI Academy programme and previously served as coach of the West Indies Under-19s, Jamaica Scorpions and Windward Islands Volcanoes at the regional First-Class level. He was assistant coach under Simmons when West Indies won the T20 World Cup in India in 2016, and was part of the technical staff of the Jamaica Tallawahs when they won the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) title in September.

In a CWI media release, Coley said, "To be asked to oversee the West Indies team on the upcoming tours of Zimbabwe and South Africa is a special honour. West Indies cricket holds a special place in my heart. The upcoming assignment will be challenging as we will come up against two teams in their home conditions.

"We will need to ensure that our planning and preparation are appropriate, and demonstrate consistency in the execution of these plans, to give ourselves the best opportunity to achieve positive results.

"The players, I'm sure, are enthusiastic about the opportunities that both series should offer and are eager to contribute to our team's success. I look forward to the tours ahead and the opportunity to make a tangible and meaningful contribution to the growth of West Indies cricket."

During an interview on Thursday, Khan commented, “I have known Andre Coley for quite a while, since 2009 and 2010, when I was West Indies manager and we went to the Under-19 World Cup (in New Zealand) with the WI team. He was the coach and I worked with him closely on that tour.

“He is very meticulous, very well-organised,” Khan continued. “The key to it though is whether he would bring what is required now to the new landscape of cricket, which is a scientific and technological approach, and a more educational approach.

“(Also) whether the players would have an appreciation what is required, to understand that to compete internationally now, you’ve got to be students of the game, you’ve got to study the opponents, have a plan (and) a purpose, and know how to execute that plan. Those are the key factors that would determine Andre’s role as a coach.”

Former Barbados batsman and WI captain Floyd Reifer served as interim coach for the 2019 ICC World Cup in England, after the dismissal of Richard Pybus, before Simmons began his second spell as WI coach.

Asked if the Coley appointment was, in large part, due to his work at the CWI Academy, with the CWI directors observing him in closer quarters, Khan replied, “I think so. He has been a part of West Indies set-up for quite a while.

“He has coached the (WI) youth teams, he has coached the Jamaica team, he was part of the Jamaica Tallawahs team that won the CPL this year. Also, being in the Academy, he would have been closely in consultation with (director of cricket) Jimmy Adams and the cricket operations people who would have set up development programmes for West Indies cricket. All those things might have weighed in his (favour).”

Khan, the former Guyana Amazon Warriors manager, continued, “It’s an interim position. I wish him well and I hope that things work out for him. But we need to now start putting long-term systems in place to help develop our cricketers to compete internationally and to have that success rate that we want.”

Monty Desai and Roddy Estwick’s contracts as batting and bowling coaches respectively were not renewed.

Concerning who he thinks may fill those voids in the technical staff, Khan pointed out, “I think we have Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who has been an outstanding (batsman) for West Indies. I think Shiv should be a candidate as a batting coach. He has been coach of the Jamaica Tallawahs and the Guyana Four-Day Regional team. We all know Shiv’s record as a batsman.

“Bowling, we have Sir Curtly Ambrose. Both of those would come to mind immediately, in terms of possible candidates for those positions.”