Phil Simmons has been witness to three decades of West Indies decline, disunity and difficulty. Ahead of his final series as coach, he explains how he believes the team lost its way.
Thirty years ago, West Indies coach Phil Simmons was part of a team that destroyed Allan Border’s Australians in Perth and looked ready to carry on a dynasty that had already lasted 15 years.
The late, great Tony Cozier summed up that WACA Ground Test in February 1993, when Richie Richardson’s side won by an innings in two days and one session to seal the series 2-1 after edging the epic Adelaide Test by a solitary run.
“A West Indies team supposedly in the process of rebuilding completed one of their most stunning and significant triumphs … After only six Tests as captain and with seven of the players in his developing team having fewer than 15 Tests to their name, Richie Richardson received the Frank Worrell Trophy.”
Phil Simmons with Curtly Ambrose in the 1990s.Credit:Steve Christo
Simmons, 59, had the summer of his life in 1992-93, enjoying his most fruitful Test series including his sole century amid Shane Warne’s breakout performance in Melbourne, taking wickets for fun in the World Series Cup, claiming numerous classic catches, and earning something like cult status for his long, sleeveless sweaters.
A young Brian Lara, Jimmy Adams, Keith Arthurton and Simmons looked to be the core of a team for at least the next five years, in concert with the formidable fast men Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and Ian Bishop.
Why, then, does he return to Perth having been witness to three decades of subsequent decline, disunity and difficulty, starting with the devolution of his own Test career? Answers remain elusive.
West Indies head coach Phil Simmons, centre, with his team. Credit:Michael Steele, AP
“It’s a good question,” Simmons tells The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. “I think at the time, the team should have come together a lot more . It was definitely a group that could have gone on. Richie was in charge and a good leader, and he had that team that could help us maintain where we’d been for a while.
“But I don’t know why it never materialised. There were some great players, but as a unit winning games, it didn’t happen. There were a couple of instances where I was left out of the squad, then came back in and was left out again, and I think that unsettled me and then I didn’t settle back into Test cricket and feel comfortable again.”
When Mark Taylor took a team to the Caribbean in 1995, Simmons dominated a one-day series the hosts won 4-1, but was left out of the Test team in favour of Sherwin Campbell, Stuart Williams, and then a makeshift captain opener in Richardson after the former was dropped. The Australians were “delighted” not to have to bowl to him again.
“That is what it felt like a few of the times, that I should have been there, but for whatever reason the selectors didn’t think so,” he says. “And to be honest, I got no reasons, you weren’t even told you were out, you heard it on the radio. But I called a couple of times and asked questions and got no answers. So it was like that and I started to focus on other things.
“It’s not easy [to keep the team together]. In that great period we had, it was easy for Clive [Lloyd] to do it, and it’s about getting everybody to understand which direction we want to go in.
“He had the power at that time and he used the power to make sure everybody in the team wanted to go in that direction, and if you didn’t want to go in that direction you’d find yourself on the outside. Things may be a bit different now, but he understood that and had the power to do that.”
Asked about his 110 at the MCG while Warne was plucking 7-52 to give Border’s team a 1-0 lead in December 1992, Simmons breaks into a wide grin.
“I am absolutely proud of that, because going into the last day and the wicket was testing, and Shane was testing himself,” Simmons says. “I remember Merv Hughes giving me a lot of lip early on, but I am absolutely proud of that.
“Difficult period going into the last day, and Shane Warne to face, and all the other bowlers on that wicket. I look back on that and realise I should have done a lot more of that, scoring hundreds at that level.”
As for Adelaide’s drama: “That’s by far the most intense last day I’ve had in Test cricket. We came out on top, but cricket itself came out on top.”
So as he mentors Kraigg Braithwaite’s team in one final series, having watched happily as the West Indian Test side regained some of its former poise through a fresh phalanx of quality fast bowlers, Simmons has a message, not only for his compatriots but also Australia – both teams living somewhat in the shadow of former greats.
“That’s where things started to go wrong for us because we were looking for that great team again, instead of starting to build it up.”
Phil Simmons
“It’s not an easy thing because everybody around you is looking for the same performances that the great era had,” Simmons says. “Sometimes you have to come down in order to build back up.
“I think we messed up from a point of view of always looking for that next Viv [Richards] or the next [Desmond] Haynes or [Gordon] Greenidge.
“So when a guy didn’t come up to that quickly, then you would push him aside. That’s where things started to go wrong for us because we were looking for that great team again, instead of starting to build it up.”
The West Indies celebrate in 1993 after claiming the Frank Worrell Trophy at the WACA.Credit:The Age
Simmons knows that for all the guile of Kemar Roach, the speed of Alzarri Joseph, the bounce of Jason Holder and the swing of Jayden Seales, it is the batting line-up that will have to stand up against Australia’s seasoned attack.
“The last two years, going on three years, the bowlers have been exceptional,” he says. “It’s just that the batting has now come along, the batsmen are starting to put time in the middle and learning to fight their way through difficult periods in the middle, and that’s causing competition for places and that’s where teams get built up.”
And as someone who learned and lived among some of the all-time champions of the region, Simmons also has a strong view on how former cricketers should mentor their younger charges: don’t make it all about you and your times.
“I don’t want to talk about my era,” he says. “I want them to create something for themselves. That’s how I live with them. That’s what we’re here for. Let’s forget about what happened before, that’s all ancient history.
“Don’t worry about who batted in this position 40 years ago. You study what we do and what you have to do for this team now.”
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
