West Indian eyes are smiling

Ex-West Indian allrounder Phil Simmons is coach of the successful Ireland team that qualified for Cricket World Cup 2011, having won the recent qualifying tournament in South Africa. We sat down with him to get the inside story on the Irish conquerers.

1) What do you think has been the recipe for success in the winning then tournament and qualifiying for World Cup 2011?

When you are at this level you cannot leave anything to chance. You have to prepare as if you are playing one of the full member sides, like a Australia or West Indies or whoever. We work hard on our skills to make sure that we are the best team we can be. We had a reputation as a good fielding side and worked particularly hard on that. Our fielding was exceptional throughout.

2) Some of your star performers such as Boyd Rankin and William Porterfield play county cricket and can be rated as professional; but what about the “amateurs” in the squad - how does this affect your standard of play?

Everybody comes into the squad and trains together for the same purpose. The players who are with counties, Niall O'Brien, Boyd Rankin and William Porterfield do bring a sense of professionalism, which does help. It does help our preparation and players do learn from each other all the time.

3) How do you rate the opposition in the World Cup qualifiers 2009?

Dissapointing overall. I would have thought that we would have been pushed more by some of the teams that qualified previously for World Cups, but our wins were comfortable each time. We only lost to fellow qualifiers Kenya and Afghanistan. Although the Afghans did not qualify, they certainly impressed.

4) Everyone seems to be talking about them. Why?

They didn't just turn up in awe of the other teams. They didn't treat us like the "big boys" of the competition. Rather, they came out and were very committed in the field and played hard. The Afghans were certainly better than us on the day, where they won by 22 runs. Their opening bowlers were good and would not be out of place in any of the teams who took part here. Their keeper and opening batsman came out and played his shots, which saw him score runs. He was quite hard to bowl to.

4) Getting back to Ireland now; in terms of resources, what does qualification for the World Cup mean?

We do get a monetary reward now from the ICC. This does allow us to remunerate some players better. Last year, we only had 2 local fully contracted players, Trent Johnston and Alex Cusack. Then there are the county players. So for the rest of the chaps, it will allow better payment, but none of them can just give up their job and live off the cricket salary. Contracts are worked around our current structure and our requirements. So a few more players will be contracted and fortunately, their employers are quite understanding, especially during the summer months and for the major tournaments.

5) Who are some of the young stars coming through in the Ireland squad?

Regan West and Peter Connell are the 2 performers that came through in this tournament. Both of them picked up 14 wickets in the competition, averaging around 23 runs per wicket.They only started in the set-up last year. But in the qualifiers they took the pressure off the other bowlers. Our bowling attack really did well. The highest score conceded was 232 against Scotland.

6) It emerged that you put on ban on drinking during the tournament. How did the team respond to it? How did you monitor their intake?

Well, we have always had a 24 hour drinking ban for before and after the games. But it had been broken by a few individuals, so we decided to impose a blanket ban on everyone. There was no overreaction to this tough - they realised that it was for their own good. Team management took this quite seriously though - as we used breathalysers on some mornings to test the boys. So it seemed to work well.

We did blow off some steam though. They were allowed a couple of cans once we had qualified for the super 8s, and then once we had qualified for the World Cup. Obviously, once we won tournament as well, the boys did celebrate. But no one overdid it.

7) What now for the Ireland team as you return home?

We go straight into the Friends Provident Trophy. We start on Sunday in Dublin in front of an expectant crowd; but it's important not to play to administrators and crowd expectations, but rather to what your team needs to achieve. It's still one day cricket, but a totally different situation going home.

First of all, we have to come down off this high. Second, the wickets are also going to be different. We are also losing our 3 county players and we also have some players who need a rest. There are a few youngsters who did play well in last year's competition, and they will have to step up in the next few games. Last year we caused one upset, although it could have been 2 or 3. We will look to get to the quarter-finals and take it from there.