Saker joins scrap for Warwickshire job

By Paul Bolton, County News Correspondent

England bowling coach David Saker has emerged as a leading candidate to succeed Ashley Giles as director of cricket at county champions Warwickshire.

Saker confirmed over the weekend that the Edgbaston vacancy, created by Giles’s appointment as England’s full-time one-day and Twenty20 coach, interested him.

Warwickshire said before the deadline for applications expired on Monday that they had not received an application for Saker but their refusal to comment on whether the situation had changed yesterday fuelled speculation that the former Victoria seamer had made contact with the county.

“We are not looking to release any names or the number of applications we have received since the window closed,” said a Warwickshire spokesman. “All we can say is that we have received applications from a number of strong candidates.”

Saker, who beat off competition from several higher-profile candidates including South African Allan Donald and Australian Craig McDermott to become England’s bowling coach in 2010 has become a key member of Andy Flower’s back room staff.

But, like Flower, the relentless international schedule has started to take its toll. Saker is understood to be in talks with the ECB about a contract extension but his interest in the Warwickshire job may be a timely bargaining tool.

Three members of the Warwickshire side that won county cricket’s first treble in 1994 have confirmed that they have applied for the Edgbaston job.

Former Warwickshire opening batsman Andy Moles, who has coached Kenya, Scotland and New Zealand, has applied for a job he narrowly missed out on in 2005 when former New Zealand batsman Mark Greatbatch was controversially appointed ahead of him.

Graeme Welch, Warwickshire’s current bowling coach and Giles’s right-hand man in their County Championship-winning campaign, and Dougie Brown, the former England and Scotland one-day international all-rounder who is now second team coach and academy director at Edgbaston, have also applied.

 

Date: 19/12/2012 08:00:00 by Paul Bolton
In: Warwickshire | Today | England |