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If Phil Simmons had his way, Bobby Simpson would be back on a plane or even a boat heading for Australia, never to return as a cricket coach in the West Indies.

Simmons, the former Trinidad and Tobago and West Indies opener, is so incensed by Simpson's recent comments that Brian Lara is not a great player, that he says the West Indies Cricket Board should terminate the contract they awarded him to coach Under-23 players in Jamaica.

Bobby Simpson making joke. How can you tell me that a man score 375 runs, 501, 200-plus, his gem of 153 and more and he [Simpson] can come and sit here and tell me that Lara isn't great, then he [Simpson] should be on the next flight out of Jamaica, because we stand for too much crap in the Caribbean, Simmons said last week, while here for the Life of Barbados Pro Am Cricket Festival.

While Simmons strongly disagrees with Simpson's comments, he is more annoyed with the fact that he boldly made them while working here in the Caribbean.

Simmons contends that people in the Caribbean always take too much nonsense with a smile and allow people to air their views without censorship.

He claims that Simpson could not have said the things he did about any other player in the world in that players' country.

He can't go to Australia and say that [the late] Sir Don Bradman wasn't great. He can't go to India and say that about Tendulkar, it would be so stupid, said the 38-year- old Simmons, who made 1002 runs in 26 Tests with one century.

Meanwhile, Simmons also lamented the sad state of injuries plaguing the West Indies team.

He says the West Indies officials don't understand the process of getting cricketers fit.

Nobody can get fit in ten days and that is what we are trying to do with these guys. I don't know who give the orders but it is obvious that the team is not fit enough and the team has to get fit, Simmons said.

If you push guys in ten days and 20 days to do what they should be doing in three months, their muscles are not going to take it,

Simmons, who is coach of the Trinidad and Tobago team, says he plans to build his curriculum vitae as a coach before he aspires in four or five years to complete his dream as West Indies coach.

© The Barbados Nation