This afternoon it was announced that former Jamaican first class player, Andre Coley has been named as the Interim Head Coach of the West Indies Men’s team for the upcoming tour of southern Africa.
This announcement came after Cricket West Indies’ (CWI) chief executive officer Johnny Grave says an interim replacement for head coach Phil Simmons could be announced within a matter of days.
He said the board of directors is to consider recommendations for the interim post this week, adding that a long-term coach would not be chosen until CWI gets the findings of a comprehensive review of West Indies’ early exit from the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in October.
Simmons resigned after that disappointing performance but remained in charge for the two-Test series against the hosts, which the regional side lost.
News of an interim coach being named came just as CWI disclosed on Wednesday that the West Indies Test squad will start their 2023 international year with two matches against Zimbabwe. The Caribbean men will also tour South Africa in February-March 2023.
“We’re hoping to get the board to approve an interim head coach to get us through that January, February, March period where we go and play Test cricket in Zimbabwe and South Africa followed by six white ball games in South Africa. We should hopefully be able to announce that later this week if the board approves our recommendations,” Grave told the Daily Observer newspaper.
“We’re certainly not making a long term recommendation to the board in terms of that appointment because we do want to delay any long-term decision of a head coach until we’ve gotten that World Cup review and have read it and digested it and seen if there are any recommendations or other things we want to factor in before going down the road of appointing a long-term head coach,” he added.
The CWI CEO said the findings of the review should be presented shortly to CWI.
A three-member independent group comprising West Indies batting legend Brian Lara, South African international cricket coach Mickey Arthur, and High Court Judge at the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, Justice Patrick Thompson Jr. are conducting the review.
“They’re in the final stages of interviewing the final few stakeholders and we’re due to get the report before the end of the year. It will then be discussed by the board of directors and then I hope that whatever the independent review recommends that we would adopt them fully,” Grave said.
He added that he will be responsible for ensuring CWI as an organization implements all the recommendations as quickly as possible.
West Indies team failed to move into the second round of the World Cup after losing to Scotland and Ireland, two lower-ranked teams, in their Group B qualifier round. Their only victory was over Zimbabwe. (CMC)
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