WICB: No single reason for Simmons sacking

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Cricket365
September 15, 2016

The West Indies Cricket Board say they sacked coach Phil Simmons this week for various reasons, not one specific thing, and that they generally did not agree on most things when it came to the team.

Simmons was fired this week after a decision was made by the board on the weekend, leaving Joel Garner in charge of the side for the tour to the UAE to face Pakistan this month.

WICB chief Michael Muirhead told Cricinfo that it was an accumulation of disagreements over time that led to the dismissal, though selection matters were the most commonly reported arguments in the media.

Muirhead said: “I hired him, so therefore I have to release him but that is on the recommendation of the board.

“The coach has an opinion and the board collectively had another opinion, and that had happened on more than one occasion.

“It is a whole number of things over a period of time. I can’t say it was really one thing. There is no one thing that defines what may have taken place.

“I think things came to a climax when a decision needed to be made.”

The CEO added: “It has been an ongoing thing where I think Phil, in all that he has said and done, he has not aligned… the relationships were breaking down.

“I think he himself had ideas for a different strategic approach, notwithstanding one already having been approved and adopted by the board. I don’t think he was aligned with that.

“The other thing was the work culture was a little different. It was how we do business, how we execute things. It was an organisational culture. It was not the difference in ethnic culture as has been pointed out elsewhere.”