Windies coach must understand team history — Sir Viv
Former Captain Sir Vivian Richards says the team’s next head coach must understand the values of West Indies cricket.
Richards’ comments relate to Cricket West Indies’ (CWI) search for a replacement for Phil Simmons, who will leave the role after the West Indies’ tour of Australia, which begins later this month. Simmons, a former player himself, resigned as head coach after the West Indies’ elimination from the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup qualifying round last month.
Richards says whoever is appointed must be someone who has experienced the highs and lows of playing for the team.
CWI has not limited itself to the region for appointing coaches as it has hired Australians Bennett King and John Dyson, and Englishman Richard Pybus, among others, in the past. But Richards says CWI should avoid hiring a foreign coach, as this has proven unsuccessful in the past.
“We have tried so many from overseas, of all colours, and we haven’t had any success,” Sir Viv said during the Good Morning JoJo sports show on Antigua-based Observer Radio on Friday. “We’ve got to form a structure, I believe, when you have your individuals who are part of an environment or an earlier part of the success story, you need these things fed into the individuals who are going to take over. Let them have an understanding that it isn’t just about what’s happening at present. There’s a legacy where this whole stuff is concerned. That’s maybe why some of these players are presently unsure. There are a lot of things to represent and I just think that’s lacking.”
Sir Viv says one of the issues with coaches in recent years is that they want to implement their own team philosophy, which is often not cohesive with the team’s identity and history.
“Individuals want to create their own environment,” he said. “‘I came into the 80s, let the 80s be this.’ No, there’s a particular path that would’ve led to the structure of West Indies cricket. We have got to lean on that in a big way.
“They should be looking for someone who has a fair idea about the institution in itself and what it represents,” “I know that that’s the way you judge from the past successes you would’ve had. Try and get someone who has a fair idea about what West Indies cricket really means. No disrespect to any of the individuals around, but I think that’s pretty much lacking in a big way — individuals who do not quite have the experience, I believe, who have been there at times. There are guys who have basically been to that war, fought the war, and can stress how that war is fought to the individuals that they’re leading. I think that’s something huge that’s missing. I do not believe enough emphasis is placed on that.”
Simmons previously coached the West Indies from 2015 to 2017 and guided it to the T20 World Cup in 2016. He returned to the role in 2019 after Ricky Skerritt’s appointment as CWI president.