GIBSON WILL BE REMEMBERED AS A FAILURE

It was about two weeks ago, when the CPL teams were in St. Kitts for the final leg of the 2014 competition that I had Jamaica Tallawahs coach Mickey Arthur on my sports talk show on Nationwide Radio talking about what is going to be required to turn the Tallawahs fortunes around after consecutive poor batting displays that saw them losing two matches to the Zouks and Tridents.

Call it intuition or whatever you want but as I prepared to conclude the conversation I squeezed in one last question. I asked the South Arican coach whether or not he would consider coaching the West Indies Test team. In response, Arthur said it was a job he would consider down the road but said that it was a job he would take.

Now, as I said before I had no prior knowledge about the impending departure of West Indies coach Ottis Gibson, who in my estimation had achieved very little in his four years in charge. It was back in February 2010 that Gibson was employed by the West Indies Board after he had had a successful stint as the bowling coach of England.

He was on my radio show shortly thereafter and during the interview sounded like a no-nonsense kind of guy. He was, to me, what the West Indies needed to stem the perceived indiscipline that was rampant within the ranks of the team that was floundering near the bottom of the Test rankings.

Four years later, the only accolade the West Indies can claim is that 2012 T20 trophy. Everything else is basically the same. Other than that trophy, Gibson’s tenure as coach will be remembered for his battles with Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan. The latter claimed Gibson destroyed his confidence. Gayle was banned from playing for the West Indies after he delivered scathing remarks against Gibson on KLAS radio and refused to apologize. Michael Holding even called for the coach to learn how to man-manage.

What is boils down to was this. Under Gibson’s charge the West Indies played 29 Tests. They won 9 and lost 16. They also played 90 one day internationals winning 36 and losing 48. As it relates to T20 internationals they played 45, winning 22 and losing 21. The team is eighth in the ICC Test rankings, eighth in the ODI rankings and seventh in the T2o rankings.

After four years in charge that was not good enough. Regardless of whatever other unknown factors that came to play in the decision of the West Indies Cricket Board and Gibson to part company with immediate effect, the bottom line is after four years in charge the more he tried to change the more things remained the same, Gibson’s legacy was one of abject failure.

Should Mickey Arthur eventually be appointed coach of the West Indies, he will have his hands full in transforming the fortunes of this team that somehow has failed to take a decent step forward in a decade or more. He will perhaps find things not to his liking, but it would be hard to conceive him doing worse than Gibson.