Toby Radford appointed as West Indies batting coach

Middlesex coach Toby Radford has been appointed as the batting coach of the West Indies cricket team. The WICB has been in the news lately following the sacking of former West Indies player and coach Phil Simmons.

Michael Muirhead, the president of the West Indies Cricket Board went on to confirm the same. However, Radford is hired only on an interim basis where he will serve as the batting coach for the Pakistan series.

West Indies will make the trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to play three ODIs, Tests, and T20 internationals apiece against Pakistan. Earlier, there was talk about this being Shahid Afridi’s final series.

Michael Muirhead, the CEO of the West Indies Cricket board went on to confirm the same. “He has been contracted just for this series,” WICB CEO Michael Muirhead said in an interview with ESPNcricinfo on Saturday.

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“He knows the youngsters well and had done well especially with them. We’ll engage as and when we need him.”

Radford had earlier served as the batting coach under previous head coach Ottis Gibson and had also been a part of the support staff that that helped the Windies clinch the World T20 all those years in 2012.

Radford will join up with Henderson Springer who replaced Phil Simmons as the coach following the latter’s sacking on Tuesday.

The calendar year of 2016 has been somewhat of a torrid one for the West Indies. The year began well for them when they clinched the 2016 edition of the World T20 in India but went on to lose the Tri-Series as well as the Test series against India.

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Rain made the divine intervention as the Windies were spared from their scars as two matches of the four ensured were affected badly resulting neutral results.

Earlier, the Windies had been dealt with the loss of their all-rounder Andre Russell.