Former Warwickshire star Trevor Penny, who has been coaching since 2005, was announced as the new assistant coach of the West Indies men’s senior cricket team in the ODI and T20I format, The 51-year old Zimbabwean, who specializes in fielding, has been brought on board for a two-year period.
After playing for more than 17 years in the English county club Warwickshire, Penny took to coaching, with his first assignment being the head coach of Sri Lanka. He was then a consultant to the Netherlands team and has served as a support staff with a number of IPL teams as well, besides the Indian senior cricket team. Recently, he coached Barbados Trident in the Caribbean Premier League 2019.
Penny will begin his stint from January 2, five days before the Windies team takes on Ireland in a three-match ODI and three-match T20I series. His aim will be to identify and groom talent ahead of the T-20 World Cup that will be held in Australia in October 2020.
“I’m thrilled and excited to be given this opportunity to work with this brilliant bunch of cricketers and staff led by Kieron Pollard and Phil Simmons. I’ve been lucky enough over the last few years to work with several members of the squad and the Caribbean is like ‘home away from home’ for me being involved in the CPL,” Penney said on his appointment.
“We have two big T20 World Cups coming up (in Australia 2020 and India 2021) and it’s my aim to try and improve everybody and be as good as we can and hopefully win those two major ICC events for the great people of the West Indies.”
Current Windies head coach Phil Simmons was excited to work with the experienced Penny and was hopeful that the team would benefit from the insights that he will offer.
“Trevor is an excellent coach and has demonstrated this everywhere he has worked. He has huge experience with Sri Lanka and India at the highest international level and in most T20 leagues around the world including the CPL. He brings enormous energy and is very well respected by all the players,” Simmons stated.
