Gibson Becomes New West Indies Coach
Ottis Gibson has left his position as coach of the England team and has been appointed as the new West Indies coach. The 40 year old coach has been granted his request by the England and Wales Cricket Board, to be released from his contract with England.
Ottis is set to take control of the West Indies for the home series which will start at the end of the month. The coach has represented the West Indies team himself at test level, so it will be nice for him to become a coach of a team he has a real passion for. Gibson handed in his notice on Monday morning, whereby Andy Flower stated: ""Ottis has been a valuable member of my management team and we will all be sorry to see him leave"
Gibson will not only be head coach of the senior team, but will also head up the entire WICB. "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"
Ottis Gibson ended his career at county side Durham in 2007, where he was then immediately appointed as the bowling consultant by England, which then in turn resulted in getting him a permanent role with the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Boasting many victories along his career, one of the most memorable has to be last summer when England beat Australia to regain the Ashes, and Ottis now feels that England are on the verge of something important.
He states ""It would have been nice to be a part of that but West Indies is in the blood and once they came calling and I couldn't say no." Ottis now has the challenge of bringing the team out of their recent bad luck, no one will expect him to turn them into a winning cricket team overnight, it will be a gradual chain of development.
The England and Wales Cricket Board now just have to find a replacement England coach, Andy Flower will be a part of the process, trying to find the right individual to build on the foundation that Ottis has left.