Port of Spain, Sep 15: Phil Simmons was sacked as the head coach for exposing the conflict within the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and represents another chapter in the ongoing soap opera in Caribbean cricket, top cricket commentator Fazeer Mohammed has said.
WICB announced the termition of Simmons' contract on Tuesday hours before the players were due to board a flight for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a series against Pakistan in all three formats of the game.
Mohammed said on Wednesday that Simmons was fired for exposing WICB's troubles.
"That merely concretises what we have known already, the fact that Simmons was suspended plus he made public details of conflict between himself as coach and one of the selectors and those outside influences which we could only assume could be somewhere within the hierarchy of West Indies cricket," said Mohammed, who does commentary on regiol and intertiol matches.
"Whether we are talking about board of directors or the man at the helm himself, or whether we are talking about the director of cricket, all of these mes would come into the mix, but it is an open secret that he has been at odds with them."
Simmons, a former West Indies all-rounder, has had a tumultuous tenure with the Dave Cameron-led WICB since his appointment 18 months ago. IANS