ZIMBABWE is missing from the forthcoming T20 World Cup, but one of the teams there, upcoming international side Papua New Guinea, will have key figures with previous links to the African nation.
Former West Indies head coach Phil Simmons has joined the PNG team as they prepared for the tournament starting on 1 June.
Simmons (61), who led the West Indies to victory in the 2016 World Cup, brings a wealth of experience from his playing and coaching career to the PNG team.
He started his coaching career in Zimbabwe as head coach of the national academy, before he was promoted to take charge of the senior national team in 2004.
Simmons, who played 26 Tests and 143 ODIs for the West Indies between 1987 and 1999, has already begun working with the PNG team. The team has arrived in St Kitts for their initial round of training sessions and practice matches. Simmons will serve as a consultant coach, collaborating with head coach Tatenda Taibu, the former Zimbabwe captain.
“My role here is as a consultant coach and how I put across my experience, not just playing in World Cups but playing in the Caribbean and the things that we should be looking at to make sure we do it right in the Caribbean and especially the venues that we play at,” Simmons stated in a Cricket PNG media release.
Reflecting on his extensive career, Simmons added: “As a player internationally for 14 years and then as an international coach for 18 years, it’s been a long time in the game. It’s always brilliant to come home, always
brilliant to come back to any part of the West Indies, you know how beautiful it is here. I’m looking forward to getting home, home which is Trinidad. Having people come here, me getting back here, it’s always a great thing, it’s always something to look forward to.”
Simmons expressed his admiration for the energy and atmosphere within the PNG team. “Their energy is unbelievable! Their warm-ups alone yesterday got me tired. The guys look like they have settled in really well. Yesterday in training we started to get out in the middle of their game so they started on some of the things they have to do here in the Caribbean and it’s nice to see the energy that’s among this squad,” he said.
He also spoke highly of head coach Tatenda Taibu. “I’ve known the head coach for a long time and he’s always energetic, there is always a lot of energy, but the players seem to be pushing him where that is not so and I
like that atmosphere in the team, I like the liveliness in the team.”
PNG will begin their T20 World Cup campaign on 2 June against the West Indies in Guyana. They will then face Uganda on 6 June, before travelling to Trinidad to play Afghanistan on 14 June New Zealand on 17 June.
Taibu has been living and coaching in Liverpool, England, over the past few years. – AGENCIES/STAFF WRITER.
