Internet Desk: Bowling coach of Australian cricket Team, David Saker will replace Darren Lehmann as the head coach of the side for the upcoming ODI series in India later this year.
Saker was England’s bowling coach from 2010 to 2015 and then coached Victoria before being named as Craig McDermott’s replacement with Australia last July, will fill in for Lehmann as he takes a break from coaching.
The tough international travel schedule coupled with Lehmann’s recent health scare with deep vein thrombosis a problem exacerbated by long-haul air travel – has seen the coaching workload shared in recent times.
Former Test opener and Western Australia coach Justin Langer led the team to last year’s ODI tri-series win over the West Indies and South Africa in the Caribbean.
And when Langer returned to the role for last month’s T20I series against Sri Lanka in Australia, while Lehmann was preparing the Test squad for the current Qantas Tour of India, he was joined by interim assistant coaches (and former Australia teammates) Ricky Ponting and Jason Gillespie.
But with Lehmann’s coaching contract extended last year to include the 2019 World Cup in the UK and the Ashes series that immediately follows it, a number of candidates have been seen as potential successors.
Saker has now officially thrown his hat into the ring, confirming today that he harbours ambitions to coach Australia in his own right.
Even though he served only one year of his term as coach of Victoria (in which he led them to the Sheffield Shield title in 2015-16) before being appointed as Bupa Support Team Assistant Coach, with an emphasis on working with the country’s top fast bowlers.
And, by his own admission, with the fact he never played for his country during a 72-game first-class career for Victoria and Tasmania between 1994 and 2003 potentially counting against him if other ex-Test greats are similarly interested.
“It’s a huge honour to be even considered to be a coach of an Australian team, and to be given the opportunity is fantastic,” Saker said after it was confirmed he would coach the team for what is expected to be a seven-match ODI series in India next October.
“I’m going to look forward to it a lot, and my ambition is to coach Australia.