Simmons wanted a four-day tune up

News

Cricket365
December 24, 2015

West Indies coach Phil Simmons said he would have preferred his side to play a four-day match in the build-up to the Boxing Day Test against Australia, instead of the two-day game that finished on Sunday.

The Windies, who lost the first Test against the Aussies inside three days, had a 13-day gap between Tests and played a two-day match against a Victorian XI in South Geelong.

The tourists batted on the first day and amassed 303 for eight with Kraigg Brathwaite (78) and Jermaine Blackwood (69) notching up half-centuries.

The home team batted on the second day and made it to 169 for three before rain washed away the final session, robbing the visitors' bowlers of much needed time in the middle.

Simmons told reporters after the game: "I would love it to have been a four-day game. Twelve or something days in between two Test matches with a two-day game is not ideal.

"That's what it's ended up as. I would love to have had a four-day game where we could bowl properly and have a proper game, like we did up in Brisbane (before the first Test). That's what I would have been happy with.

"When I saw the amount of days in between I asked that we have at least a four-day game. When the last MOU (memorandum of understanding) came back it ended up a two-day game. I guess the details of that would have to come from back home."

Following the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, the Windies will play the third and final Test in Sydney starting on 3 January.