Ottis Gibson named West Indies coach

By Rahul Bajaj
for Cricketain.com

Published: February 2, 2010

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St. Johns, Antigua: Former West Indian fast bowler, Ottis Gibson, has been named coach of the West Indies cricket team and he will take over the reins of the team in time for the home series against Zimbabwe starting later this month.

In an interview to CBC Radio, the West Indies Cricket Board chief executive Ernest Hilaire confirmed the news that Gibson has left his job as England’s bowling coach to take up the assignment with the national team, which has been lying vacant since John Dyson’s sacking last year.

“Ottis will begin his appointment from the start of the home series against Zimbabwe. I think we need to take Ottis’ appointment in the stride. He will be the head coach of the WICB, and not just head coach of the senior team. He will have responsibility for coaching right across all of our representative cricket teams,” Hilaire said.

“This will give him an opportunity to stamp a particular style of coaching a West Indies way across all the teams. This is really important because by the time our players reach the senior team, they should be the finished article, and they really ought to be focusing mainly on their strategy, tactics, how they win games, and being able to execute,” he said.

The interim coach, David Williams, will remain in charge for the upcoming one-day tour to Australia, which starts next week, before becoming Gibson’s assistant.

West Indies’ home series against Zimbabwe begins with a Twenty20 international in Trinidad on February 28 and Hilaire said it was important to give Gibson time to stamp his mark on the team. “I think this has to be a long-term project,” he said. “This is not a short-term project. We are not asking Ottis to turn around the West Indies fortunes and make them a winning team overnight. There has to be a gradual chain of development.”

Gibson, who represented West Indies in two tests and 15 one-day internationals, has been England’s bowling coach since 2007. Hilaire said that the vast experience of Gibson made him the perfect candidate for the post.

“We hope that with him responsible for all coaching, he can start outlining to the coaches of all our teams the kind of players and approaches he wants from the players, to ensure there is a clear career pathway as they move from the junior ranks to the senior team. He is a new era coach, and someone who has been exposed to all of the technologies and new approaches to coaching. We are hoping that he will bring to this task, an understanding of West Indies cricket. He will have all requisite knowledge and skills,” he said.

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