Simmons sacking led to Windies meltdown, claims Pollard

Port of Spain, Oct 20:  All-rounder Kieron Pollard has described shambolic behind-the-scenes operations of the West Indies team in the recent Twenty20 and One-Day series against Pakistan, saying the chaos resulted from the sudden sacking of head coach Phil Simmons on the eve of the tour.

The all-rounder said Simmons’ premature departure had been a “spirit-dampening moment” for the West Indies and had led to disarray in the camp and low team morale with players confused over exactly who had taken over responsibility for the unit, reports CMC.

Pollard’s assertions come two weeks after fellow Trinidadian and West Indies team-mate Dwayne Bravo claimed that Simmons’ axing had been a major factor in the side’s poor performances.

“I had to ask the question because I wasn’t sure who was in charge,” Pollard told I95.5 FM Radio here on Wednesday.

“From media reports before I got there - because the team got there before I did - they said that Joel Garner (mager) would be the head of the delegation and we’ll have the assistant coaches in Henderson Springer and Roddy Estwick … so you weren’t sure who was the head coach.”

Pollard, who played in both the T20 and the One-Day series, said with the magement structure unclear, information was also difficult to come by during the tour, both of them they lost.

“One person asked ‘coach, what’s the plan for tomorrow?’ We got no response but then we saw the cricketing schedule coming from the physio (CJ Clark) so we were in shock,” Pollard continued.

“And then at other times you asked questions to the magement staff, the media guy (Philip Spooner) was responding to some of those messages.”

“You were getting (information) in bits and pieces but then ok, if you had a problem and you say ‘Mage, what’s the scerio here? Then maybe you may hear from him and then you may (also) get it from someone else.”

The West Indies produced limp performances as they suffered 0-3 drubbings in the both the T20 and One-Day series to Pakistan earlier this month in the United Arab Emirates.

On the day of the squad’s departure for the tour, the West Indies Cricket Board announced it has sacked Simmons after just 18 months in charge, over what it termed “differences in culture and strategic approach”. IANS