Philip Verant Simmons (born 18 April 1963) is a Trinidadian cricket coach and former cricketer who was an all-rounder played as an opening batsman, a medium-fast bowler and a slip fielder. He is the current coach of the West Indies cricket team. Early life Simmons' first home was in Arima, Trinidad, a few miles outside Port of Spain. He lived just two doors down from Larry Gomes, a former West Indian batsman. He proved to be adept at a number of sports, but excelled at cricket and was soon playing for the regional side East Zone. He made the leap to represent Trinidad and Tobago in 1983 with the help and encouragement of Rohan Kanhai, the coach at East Zone. Domestic career At the domestic level, he featured for Trinidad and Tobago, English sides Durham and Leicestershire along with South African clubs Border and Easterns. During the 1996 season with Leicestershire, he marked his debut for the club in scoring 261, his highest score for the club, with 34 fours and four sixes against Northamptonshire. He went on to accumulate 1244 runs with 56 wickets and 35 catches, helping his side to win the County Championship for only the second time in their history. Simmons also won the PCA Player of the Year award in 1996. He was thereafter named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1997. Simmons later helped Leicestershire to win another County Championship title in 1998. During that campaign he took over the captaincy from James Whitaker and Chris Lewis. At the time Whitaker was ailing with an injury and Lewis was reprimanded for indisciplined behaviour. With Simmons at the helm, Leicestershire went on a six match winning streak and eventually claimed the title with a resounding triumph over Surrey at The Oval. Simmons eventually scored 11682 runs at an average of 35.61 with 24 hundreds and 65 half centuries as well as 214 wickets picked up at an average of 28.68 with a sum of five 5 wicket hauls in his first class career. International career Like many before him, Simmons found the transition to Test cricket difficult, making only one century in his Test career (110 at Melbourne, during the West Indies' 1992-93 tour of Australia, and finishing his career in 1997 with a batting average of just 22.26 in 26 matches. Simmons proved more adept at the international one day game, playing