The veteran looks back at his 20 years working as a cricket coach across the world – with teams including West Indies, Ireland, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and now Bangladesh
Interview by Mohammad Isam11-Dec-2024When Bangladesh play West Indies in the third ODI in St Kitts on December 12, it will be Phil Simmons’ 400th international in a 20-year coaching career. He looks back at the various teams he has coached and what he’s learned during his time with them.You are about to become the fourth coach, after Duncan Fletcher, Mickey Arthur and Dav Whatmore, to be in charge for 400 internationals. What does the milestone mean to you?
As far as cricket is concerned, I am not a numbers man. I can say that reaching 400 matches was a surprise. It wasn’t something that was in my mind when I started coaching. It is great to have reached the milestone. It means I have done something right.You are currently the Bangladesh coach on an interim basis. It is a team in transition, with its own set of complexities. How do you stay hungry after 20 years?
My hunger is determined by the ability of seeing improvement. It is a team in transition. They need some sort of stability and guidance, but also there’s a chance of improvement and success. It is my motivation. A chance to get success and improve people.Related
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You led West Indies to the 2016 T20 World Cup title. It was probably the highest point in your coaching career. Where do you rank the campaign?
It was an unbelievable campaign in the way we played the cricket. We had a bit of luck at times. Lendl Simmons being out and not out on a few occasions at the Wankhede [Lendl Simmons was twice caught off no-balls in the 2016 T20 World Cup semi-final against India] was one of them. The campaign was exciting throughout. We played really good cricket. We deserved to be winners at the end of the day. It was definitely the highest point I have reached in my coaching career.It all started in Zimbabwe in 2004. What were your initial days like? Why did you take up coaching?
I took up coaching because I enjoyed helping my team-mates while I was playing. We looked after one another. We would try to help out in the nets. When I finished, I was encouraged by Tim Boon at Leicester to do my coaching courses. He saw something in me. After that [the role at] Zimbabwe came up, first with the academy and then the national team. I was trying to understand what coaching at that level was about, especially trying to help players who have not been at the highest level. The initial days were all about learning, and then it got better and better.
You went to Ireland when they were an Associate side and you took them to World Cup campaigns in 2007, 2011 and 2015. You said that you learned about managing limited resources while coaching them.
Ireland was the best experience I had as a coach. It was wonderful working with their CEO, Warren Deutrom. Being able to put a vision in front of the players and then working with them towards that vision, it was an exciting time. It helped me get my coaching to the next level. The players were enthusiastic about learning, moving forward and getting better. They wanted to win against big countries who never gave them the time of day. Ireland weren’t competitive enough, so it was about getting competitive and winning against big countries.Do you feel differently when coaching West Indies, your home team, as compared to other teams?
I think when you coach West Indies, there’s a lot more emotions involved. It is a little bit harder to separate the emotion when you work for your own country. You want everything to go right immediately. The emotion is what makes it harder to control.How do you prepare a West Indies team full of superstars for a T20 World Cup campaign? Don’t they already know everything?
They know everything. They know about T20 cricket. As a coach, your job is to get everyone to understand the direction the team needs to go in. They play a lot, but they play for different franchises. It is about how you get everybody to understand that right now we are in this competition, and we need to play for one another in this competition. Next week or two weeks later, you are playing against each other.That’s the biggest challenge – to get everyone to play together in a short period of time and make sure they know that they have to look after each other in this tournament. It was the World Cup where all the big names were there. We knew we needed to win another title for the West Indies.”I think when you coach West Indies, there’s a lot more emotions involved. You want everything to go right immediately”•Getty ImagesYou joined Afghanistan in 2017 at a time when not a lot was known about cricket in the country.
I am extremely proud watching them in the two World Cups. I was a little bit surprised at how they played in the 50-over World Cup, where they played exceptionally well. Then in this last T20 World Cup in the USA and Caribbean, they showed what they can do. Every year someone new comes out of there to be the new superstar. It is an exciting time for them. I am proud of how they keep going forward.Your second stint with West Indies, from 2019 to 2022, had some highs and lows. Winning in Chattogram chasing nearly 400 in 2021 was a high, while not making it to the main draw of the 2022 T20 World Cup was obviously a low. How do you react to these two different situations?
There’s ups and downs in everything you do in life. How you get out from the downs has been one of my strengths. If you don’t do well in one tournament, it means you have done something wrong. You look forward to what you can change and what you can do right in the next tournament. I think we were way under par in the qualifiers for the World Cup. We didn’t deserve to be at the main draw. It is not hard for you to bounce back from that, because if you did everything right, you wouldn’t have missed out.When you talk about the Chattogram Test, we were so close as a unit. Covid brought us closer. I think that innings from Kyle Mayers [210 not out on debut] will be looked at for years as one of the best Test innings during a chase.Why would anyone want to coach an international side anymore in these days?
That’s a very good question. I think there’s a lot to coaching international teams. That’s the high of everything, particularly Test cricket. I think when you look at World Cups, they bring joy to the countries. Franchises bring joy to your supporters. It is still a big thing to coach international teams. A lot of coaches still think that way. Not everyone can do a franchise job, which is to get people to get better quickly. Whereas, you have a bit of time to put together at the international level.”Ireland was the best experience I had as a coach. It helped me get my coaching to the next level. They wanted to win against big countries who never gave them the time of day”•Deshkalyan Chowdhury/AFP/Getty ImagesHow easy or difficult is it to coach a franchise for six or eight weeks? What can a coach really do in that time?
You have to get the team to play together. Get the team to understand that we brought them here for different roles. When we put you in the team, we want you to play for us. Getting them in a short of period of time to understand that and make sure we are all going down the same road. At the end of the day, it doesn’t come together every time. Sometimes it comes together, and it is brilliant. Sometimes it doesn’t, you know.How has the role of the head coach changed since you started out, given the rise of analysts and the expansion in support staff?
I think it has changed a lot. When I started, I think I had one other coach with me in Zimbabwe and Ireland. I had to do a lot of the work. Now the head coach’s role has developed into more of a man manager and making sure you manage the players and coaching staff to give the team what it needs.Who do you rate highly as a cricket coach?
There are quite a few. When I first started, I spoke to John Buchanan and Bob Woolmer, God rest his soul. I would call them to ask about coaching in those early days. It is difficult [to answer] now, because you have so many different coaches out there. It is hard to judge coaches these days. You create success as a coach. You have to do different things for different teams. All coaches are good coaches, depending on how you get your team to perform.What sort of impact has working for 20 years in international cricket left on you?
It is a sense of fulfillment towards a sport that has made me who I am.