PHIL SIMMONS has finally put his case on his openly vented allegations of “outside interference” in selection to the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).
In his comments to the media prior to the team’s departure for the tour of Sri Lanka in October that led that to his suspension by the WICB, the head coach, who was one of the five selectors, spoke of “people (who) would use their position to get people into a squad or . . . get people left out of a squad”.
In a lengthy and detailed statement presented to chief executive officer Michael Muirhead last week, Simmons left no doubt of his conviction that he was referring to the two most powerful men in West Indies cricket at present, board president Dave Cameron and director of cricket Richard Pybus, the Englishman who was hired in October 2013 after brief international stints in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Simmons’ account, accompanied by copies of relevant emails, followed the WICB’s decision to reinstate him for the current intimidating tour of Australia, while announcing that it would “immediately investigate” his charges after which it would take “the necessary and appropriate action”.
A copy of his statement has been made available to me by a trusted source.
His first experience of what he saw as “intervention” came after the exclusion of 162-Test veteran Shivnarine Chanderpaul from the two home Tests against Australia two months after his appointment last March.
Simmons revealed that Cameron and vice-president Emmanuel Nanthan pressed the selectors to reverse its decision and play the long-serving left-hander. The WICB “needed to honour him”, they were told.
Simmons described Lloyd as “irritated” when Cameron called later to tell him Chanderpaul was being flown in from Guyana the next morning to join the preparation camp, insisting that he should be in the eleven in the later Tests. The selectors stuck to their guns.
Contract dispute
The next confrontation came in the naming of the preliminary 22 to be whittled down to 15 for the ultimately cancelled ODIs in Zimbabwe. Dwayne Bravo, captain of the ODI team prematurely withdrawn from the tour of India the previous October over a contracts dispute with the WICB, and Kieron Pollard, a member of the team, were among them.
In a July 2 email to the selectors, Pybus opposed their inclusion.
“Bearing in mind they have played no one-day cricket since then [the India tour], I am not sure what justifies them being back on the selection board,” he contended. “My concern is that the players you left out originally for reasons to do with lack of loyalty and commitment to WI cricket come back in.”
He acknowledged that he had repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, urged the WICB directors to place sanctions on “those responsible” for the India debacle so that “there could be clear authority from the board”. He was told they had banned no one, so all the players were available.
His position was bolstered by Cameron in a teleconference arranged by Pybus on July 7, also involving Nanthan, Muirhead and the selectors. Its purpose, according to the director of cricket, was so that “we needed to be clear on the strategic direction that you as a panel are taking the squad”.
He held that there was a “potential risk” to the WICB from restoring the team from India.
“The India strike brought the organisation to its knees and the brink of bankruptcy,” he stated. It so happened that, from the start, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) held the WICB responsible and threatened it with a US$42 million compensation claim that still stands.
Simmons reported that, at the meeting, Cameron complained of “his personal feelings regards Bravo and Pollard walking past him” that was “disrespectful”.
Since Bravo had retired from four-day cricket, he said there was no value in picking him for Tests or ODIs, a position he deemed should apply to all those who no longer played the WICB’s first-class Professional Cricket League (PCL). Their only avenue would be T20s.
Before he could consider them, the president stated that he personally needed “a statement of commitment”.
In an email the same day to Pybus, his fellow selectors and captain Jason Holder, Simmons recalled that when he took up his position he asked for “the chance to have the best squad available for each format of the game”.
Too long away from the intrigue and constant confrontations between board and players that downgraded the West Indies from No. 1 to the depths of the ICC rankings in Tests and ODIs in his absence, it was an unrealistic hope for the former West Indies opener.
His nine months back in the Caribbean have been in stark contrast to his lengthy stay in Ireland, where he was held in high esteem for his uninhibited success with the national team.
He needs all the resilience he can muster, along with the support of his players, to somehow overcome the problems he has had to deal with and emulate for his national team what he achieved for Ireland.
