(BBC) The England and Wales Cricket Board has confirmed it will allow bowling coach Ottis Gibson to explore the vacant head coach position with West Indies.
The ECB had denied links between Gibson and the West Indies Cricket Board when approached by BBC Sport on 22 January.
However yesterday it revealed it had received a formal approach from the WICB – and that Gibson had also asked to talk to his potential new employers.
WICB chief executive Ernest Hilaire says a new coach will be named in days.
The Trinidad and Tobago Express yesterday reported Hilaire as saying that the board was in discussions with one man and had reached the “final stages of negotiations.”
“We expect to make an announcement early next week,” Hilaire added.
Gibson, 40, played two Tests and 15 one-day internationals for West Indies. A fast bowler, he ended his playing career after the summer of 2007 at Durham – and was immediately taken on as England’s bowling coach, replacing Kevin Shine.
He has since been given a full-time staff job at the ECB.
Gibson played a crucial role as England won back the Ashes last summer, with star bowlers James Anderson and Andrew Flintoff keen to credit his influence on separate occasions.
After England won the 2005 Ashes with Troy Cooley in the Gibson role, the ECB failed to extend the Australian’s contract and Cooley switched allegiance to his native country.
The loss of Cooley was later cited as a significant reason behind England’s 5-0 drubbing by the Aussies in the 2006-07 Ashes.
On 21 January, Radio Jamaica made a claim on its website that Gibson was “set to arrive in time to take up the job before South Africa’s tour of the Caribbean in May.”
But an ECB spokesman told BBC Sport the following day: “We are certainly not aware of this and no deal has been agreed.”
West Indies’ current coach David Williams, employed in the main role on a short-term basis following the sacking of John Dyson in August, could stay on as Gibson’s deputy.
England now look set to tour Dubai and Bangladesh without a bowling coach, unless they can find someone to take on the role – perhaps on an interim basis – in the next two weeks.
There are no obvious high-profile candidates available.
