Sydney: Trevor Hohns was named as the chairman of Australia’s cricket selectors on Friday after steadying the ship as caretaker chief following a string of defeats last year.
Hohns, who took over as caretaker chairman when Rod Marsh quit following an embarrassing home series defeat to South Africa, joins Greg Chappell, Mark Waugh and coach Darren Lehmann on the four-man panel.
Cricket Australia said the panel had also been restructured with Hohns, Chappell and Lehmann focusing on Test and one-day selection, with Waugh and Lehmann picking the Twenty20 squads.
“It’s certainly exciting and going to be challenging going forward for us,” Hohns, who is contracted until February, 2020, told the Cricket Australia website.
“I think it certainly makes sense to separate the T20 format of the game from the others because we are, in effect, trying to increase our performance in that format and also our ranking... so it does make sense to have a little bit of a split panel in that area.”
The rejig follows a slump last year when Australia lost all three Tests in Sri Lanka and were thrashed twice at home by South Africa.
Saker takes charge of Australia
Assistant coach David Saker will take charge of Australia for their one-day international tour of India later this year, allowing head coach Darren Lehmann to take a break.
Australia’s coaching set-up has seen former cricketers take turns to fill in for Lehmann, who recovered from deep vein thrombosis last year after being hospitalised for the condition.
“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, who has also worked as England’s bowling coach, was quoted as saying on cricket Australia’s website. “I’m going to look forward to it a lot, and my ambition is to coach Australia.”
The Australia test side are involved in an ongoing four-match series in India which is tied at 1-1 after two tests, while the final details of the one-day international tour, pencilled in for October, have yet to be confirmed.
— Reuters/AFP
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