Moles confirms application for Warwicks job

By Paul Bolton, County News Correspondent

Former Warwickshire favourite Andy Moles has applied to become the county’s next director of cricket. Moles, who was a key member of the Warwickshire squad that won six domestic titles between 1993 and 1995, has submitted his application to succeed Ashley Giles, who has been appointed England’s full-time one-day and Twenty20 coach, ahead of Monday’s deadline.

Moles came close to coaching Warwickshire in 2005 but narrowly missed out on the job to former New Zealand batsman Mark Greatbatch. Greatbatch was sacked after two wretched seasons in charge while Moles went off to coach in New Zealand first with Northern Districts and then as New Zealand national coach.

Moles had a stint as cricket professional at Wellingborough School last year and is now coaching the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. He is understood to be keen to coach in county cricket and particularly at Warwickshire, his native county and the club he played for from 1986 to 1998.

Warwickshire’s current bowling coach Graeme Welch, an influential figure in this year’s County Championship success, and second team coach and academy director Dougie Brown are also certain to apply for the director of cricket job at Edgbaston.

A fourth member of Warwickshire’s 1994 treble-winning squad, Trevor Penney, has yet to confirm whether he is in the running to replace Giles. Penney is currently India’s assistant coach having retired from playing in 2005 to take up a similar role with Sri Lanka.

Off the pitch, meanwhile, Warwickshire are expected to announce a record loss of £2 million next month. Around £1.6 million of the loss is taken up by depreciation on the new pavilion at Edgbaston, with £500,000 of the deficit the result of lost revenue from having four out of seven days of international cricket at Edgbaston completely washed out last summer.

Three days of the third Test against the West Indies at Edgbaston in June were abandoned without a ball being bowled, including the first two days for which 30,000 tickets had been sold in advance. It was the first time since 1964 that the first two days of a Test in England had been completely washed out.

Warwickshire also suffered from having three of their five home Friends Life t20 matches badly affected by the weather, including complete washouts against Worcestershire and Gloucestershire.


Date: 12/12/2012 06:00:00 by Paul Bolton
In: Warwickshire | Today |