West Indies team turnaround due to honest sessions: Simmons

Bridgetown, July 20 (IANS) West Indies men's coach Phil Simmons has said that the turnaround in the team was due to the "honest" sessions the side has had before the Sri Lanka series and later the series against South Africa, where the focus was on playing for the pride of the country.

Though South Africa won the away T20I series 3-2, West Indies gave a tough fight with the series being decided in the final match. Against Australia in the ongoing white-ball series, West Indies have won the T20Is 4-1, with the three-match ODI series set to begin on July 21.

Buoyed by the success of the side of late, Simmons said on Monday that, "What has brought this sense of unity is the willingness and the hunger to win cricket matches for West Indies. At the start of the Sri Lanka series we had a chat among all the players and the main thing we discussed was to understand that we had to play cricket together for West Indies.

"We had some honest conversations among all team members before the the South Africa series as well…we are looking at making sure that we go there to represent West Indies. We're not going to win every game but equality that we put out when we are on the field is going to highlight West Indies cricket," added the former all-rounder.

West Indies player Kieron Pollard said ahead of the opening ODI here that, "It's an Australian cricket team that left the shores and these guys will want to impress. It's a matter of us concentrating on what we need to do and our plans."