West Indies head coach Phil Simmons believes that there isn’t high-quality preparation happening enough in the territories to bring in more talented players into Caribbean cricket and that played a role in the national team’s latest struggle at international cricket.
Simmons’ comment came after West Indies suffered 0-2 whitewash at the hands of South Africa in the recent Test series – where the hosts failed to cross the 200-run mark in any of the four innings and even they were bowled out for their lowest total 97 in the first innings of the 1st Test.
Simmons told ESPNcricinfo: “When we leave a tour, we always have to go and work on things. Tours come up quickly these days so little things we have to correct come up again and again. We had done some work on facing spin, and now we need to do some work on fast bowling.”
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The former West Indies cricketer continued, “I don’t think high-quality preparation is happening enough in the territories. A lot of players come to us and we step up the intensity. More needs to be done in the territories. But that is something we have been saying for a long time.”
He signed off by saying on their lowest total 97 in the 1st Test: “In that first Test match, we got caught playing away from our bodies a lot and when a wicket is doing as much as it did in that Test match, then that is to your detriment and we saw that in being bowled out for 97.”
Noteworthy, West Indies and South Africa will now clash in a five-match T20I series starting on June 26 (Saturday) at Queen's Park in Grenada.
(With IANS Inputs)
