Rain, No Play

Caribbean Cricket today reported that former Sri Lankan and Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore is among the candidates to replace former coach Bennett King. John Dyson, another former coach of Sri Lanka is a candidate as well. The list of West Indians includes Phil Simmons, Eldine Baptiste, current assistants David Williams and Hendy Springer as well as allrounder and newly appointed English bowling coach Ottis Gibson and Roger Harper's brother Mark.

As a World Cup winning coach with Sri Lanka in 1996, Whatmore headlines the list of possible coaches. He last coached Bangladesh to unprecedented wins over India and South Africa in the last world Cup and was heavily rumored to be a strong candidate in the coaching searches in Pakistan, England and India. With the well documented failure of Australian Bennett King's tenure, the West Indian cricketing public might be unwilling to welcome another Australian in Whatmore. However, Whatmore would come to the job with a proven record of taking teams like Sri Lanka in the mid nineties and Bangladesh of 2007 to unprecedented heights. King on the other hand, had no international experience as the coach of the Australian cricket academy when he took over the Windies job. John Dyson experienced mixed success in two years at the helm in Sri Lanka, but he doesn't enjoy the international stature of Whatmore and almost definitely would be unpalatable to the West Indies public.

Of the West Indian candidates, Phil Simmons and Mark Harper are the only ones with the experience of coaching an international team. Simmons bravely took over the job of coaching Zimbabwe in 2004 but was sacked a year later under farcical circumstances. He had been made a scapegoat after Zimbabwe's string of poor performances including the historic loss to Bangladesh in January 2005, which is still Bangladesh's only Test win. Simmons is the current Irish coach after taking over after the 2007 World Cup. Mark Harper was coach of Bermuda from 2001 to 2004, but apparently there was 'a litany of complaints' (Scroll down to bottom of article) against his coaching.

Current assistant coaches David Williams of Trinidad and Hendy Springer of Barbados both lack international experience with both having been coaches of their respective territories. Williams has enjoyed much success regionally in the last couple of years as the coach of Trinidad's triumphant teams. Eldine Baptiste was recently appointed coach of Allen Stanford's professional Twenty20 Antigua team and has coached overseas before in the South African domestic competition. However, like Springer and Williams, Baptiste might have to do some learning on the job should he be appointed head coach. This, however, should not necessarily disqualify their candidacies as each of them, especially Williams with his recent successes, could do an excellent job.

The candidate that really intrigues me however, is Ottis Gibson. Gibson was recently named the MVP of England's Professional Cricket Association following his prolific season for Durham, where he took all 10 wickets in one innings. He was also recently appointed bowling coach for England after the incumbent Allan Donald temporarily stepped down. Gibson has been a rising coaching prospect in England, having been an assistant at the England youth ranks and at the English Cricket Academy. A Barbadian, he also longs to coach in the West Indies. Gibson would be an inspired, if not the most experienced, choice. With only 2 Tests and 15 ODIs, Gibson was never really given the chance to excel on the cricket field representing the West Indies, and it would be unfortunate if his coaching abilities are used to further English cricket rather than West Indies cricket. Even if he is not ultimately chosen for the top job, a role should be found for him in the West Indies coaching setup. Otherwise, we in the West Indies may have to hear of his coaching exploits, like his 10-for, from afar.

• 867 reads