Foxes Flashback - Phil Simmons
Fri 30 Oct 2020
Phil Simmons arrival in English First Class cricket almost ended in tragedy. Batting in poor light and without a helmet, he lost sight of a short ball from David Lawrence (one of the fastest bowlers in English cricket at the time) and was hit. The swift action on the ground led to an operation to remove pressure caused by a blood clot on the brain. His life was saved, but his tour was over.
His arrival at Grace Road was rather happier. His mixed fortunes as a Test match player for the West Indies had raised question marks about his signing amongst the county faithful. How quickly did we change our minds!
The modest record score for the county, 252, held by Earl Shilton’s Sammy Coe had lasted 80 years.Simmons ended his first day as a Leicestershire player just 5 short of that figure, and by the time he was finally dismissed for 261, he had batted for seven and a half hours, and hit 34 fours and four sixes; the cornerstone partnership was for the fifth wicket of 253 which he shared with Paul Nixon.
On only one other occasion did he get close to matching this score, when he scored 194 in just over four hours against Notts in 1998, sharing in a county record partnership for the fifth wicket of 322 with Ben Smith.
In all, he spent just three summers with Leicestershire during which they finished 2nd, 1st and 1st. Though statistically, his best year was 1996 (1186 runs, 56 wickets and 33 catches), his contribution in 1998 included taking over the captaincy from an injured James Whitaker and a ‘disciplined’ Chris Lewis. Leicestershire won 6 matches in a row under his motivational leadership and the championship was won with a crushing victory over Surrey at The Oval.
He is currently the Head Coach of the West Indies cricket team his second spell in this role. Since retiring from playing in 2002, he has had spells coaching the national team of Zimbabwe, Ireland and Afghanistan.
For Leicestershire;
First Class
51 Matches, 2,661 runs, 261 Highest, 81 catches, 109 wickets.
One Day
70 Matches, 2,716 runs, 140 Highest, 38 catches, 63 wickets.
