Follow UsFormer West Indies all-rounder and head coach Phil Simmons has joined the Papua New Guinea (PNG) men's team as a consultant coach for the upcoming T20 World Cup, which will be held in the Caribbean and the US from June 1.
Simmons will assist head coach Tatenda Taibu during the tournament, helping the team understand and acclimatise with the conditions better. Simmons played over 160 matches for the West Indies, but more famously was the head coach of the side that won the T20 World Cup in India in 2016.
“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 said.
“As a player internationally for fourteen years and then as an international coach for eighteen 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 has also coached teams like Ireland, Zimbabwe, and Afghanistan. Most recently, he was the head coach of the West Indies in their disappointing exit from the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.
This is the second time PNG have qualified for the T20 World Cup, after making their debut in 2021. They play all their games in the Caribbean, starting with their first match against West Indies in Guyana on June 2, where they will also take on Uganda three days later.
The action will then shift to the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad, where the Barramundis face Afghanistan (June 13) and New Zealand (June 17).
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