Gibson has played a monumental role in the West Indies’ revival as of late

West Indies head coach Ottis Gibson has signed a new three-year deal to remain with the national team till 2016 after the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) expressed their interest in retaining his services, especially for the 2015 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup, which is set to be hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

Gibson used to be England’s bowling coach in 2007 before replacing John Dyson as the West Indies’ head coach in early 2010.

Under Gibson’s leadership, the West Indies have been on a hot streak as of late and also won their first major tournament since 1979 last year after defeating Sri Lanka in the finals of the ICC World Twenty20.

However, Gibson has had his share of problems with the team as well, most notably with flamboyant opening batsman Chris Gayle, while also having angered a few players with his opinions on the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) negative impact on Caribbean cricket.

“I enjoy being involved in West Indies cricket and it is something I’m very excited about considering what we have achieved – especially in the last year – beating New Zealand at home in all three formats and winning the World Twenty20 tournament in Sri Lanka,” Gibson said. “This confirms that we are making progress and I am happy to continue with the team for the next three years as we look to take West Indies cricket forward.

“There is a lot to do and things to look forward to. There is the Champions Trophy in England this year, we will be defending the World T20 title in Bangladesh next year and there is the World Cup in 2015. These are things we have talked about and these are things the selectors have been planning for.”

Gibson’s next aim is to help the West Indies climb the rankings across all three formats and establish themselves as the team to beat, just like they were throughout the 1980s.

“We will also look to climb the ICC rankings in all three formats,” he said. “This is something we have to strive for, to make the move up. There is a lot more one-day cricket than Test cricket this year, but next year there are quite a few more Test matches, so these will be opportunities for the players to perform and for the team to progress. You set goals and the real enjoyment is when you achieve those goals and see progress being made.”

WICB chief executive Michael Muirhead was pleased with the re-signing of Gibson and hopes to see the West Indies become the most dominant team in world cricket once again.

“Ottis has added significant value to the development of the West Indies team during his tenure and we are delighted to have secured his services for another three years,” Muirhead added. “Most notably is that he led the implementation of a system of professionalism within the team unit and curbed the negative results, which we were experiencing with some frequency.

“While there have also been some challenges along the way, these are not to be unexpected in such a dynamic and high pressure environment and the WICB looks forward to the continued development of the West Indies team through this next critical phase under Ottis’ stewardship at the elite-team level.”

The West Indies are currently playing a home series against Zimbabwe and will be involved in an ODI tri-series against India and Sri Lanka, along with a Test series against Pakistan later this year.