Wednesday, February 3, 2010

West Indies confirm Gibson as new coach

The West Indies have announced that Ottis Gibson has been appointed as its new head coach, starting for the upcoming home series against Zimbabwe.

The 40-year-old played two Tests and 15 one-day internationals for the West Indies and since 2007 has been working with the England side as a bowling coach.

Gibson was regarded as having played a crucial role in helping England regain the Ashes last summer and his contribution was praised by bowlers including Andrew Flintoff and James Anderson.

The Barbados-born cricketer will take the reins in his new post for the Twenty20 international and five one-day games against Zimbabwe, which commence on February 28th. The cricket betting makes the West Indies favourites to win this series.

However, he will not be at the helm for the West Indies games against Australia and David Williams will continue as interim coach before becoming Gibson's assistant.

Ernest Hilaire, chief executive of the West Indies Cricket Board, told Carribean radio station CBC that Gibson will take the role of "head coach" of the entire board and not just the senior team.

Hw said: "He will have responsibility for coaching right across all of our representative cricket teams.

"This will give him an opportunity to stamp a particular style of coaching, a West Indies way, across all the teams."

The cricket odds suggest the West Indies face a daunting task in the one-day games against Australia as their opponents recently completed a 5-0 victory in a similar series against Pakistan.

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