Warwicks confirm Brown appointment

By Paul Bolton, County News Correspondent

Warwickshire have confirmed the appointment of Dougie Brown as their new director of cricket. The former England and Scotland international all-rounder steps up from second team coach and academy director at Edgbaston to replace Ashley Giles who took over as England’s one-day and Twenty20 coach earlier this month.

Graeme Welch, who was also shortlisted for the Warwickshire job, is promoted to assistant coach from bowling coach and will be Brown’s right-hand man as he was to Giles when Warwickshire won the County Championship last summer.

Former Warwickshire wicketkeeper Tony Frost also joins the coaching team on a full-time basis. Frost worked as part-time batting coach last summer while also working as a member of head groundsman Gary Barwell’s groundstaff. Frost will now combine batting coach duties with looking after the Second XI.

“After a thorough search and assessment process, undertaken to assess the relative merits of the internal and external candidates, I am delighted by Dougie’s appointment,” said Warwickshire chief executive Colin Povey.

“It will provide continuity after a successful 2012 in which we won the LV County Championship title and ensure that the club’s established cricket policies and processes remain in place. Dougie knows the club and the current crop of players as well as anyone, so he is well placed to take the squad forward.”

The appointment of Brown, who played all his county cricket for Warwickshire, having joined the county in 1990, completes a two-month recruitment process for Warwickshire who initially resisted the temptation to promote from within and instead opted to advertise the director of cricket job.

“It is a real honour for me to be given this opportunity to lead Warwickshire Cricket with the strong coaching support of Graeme Welch and Tony Frost,”  said Brown.

“As a club and as a squad we are in a good place at the moment but we are very determined to deliver sustained success on the pitch. This will only be achieved if we keep working hard, stick together and perform consistently.

“Last year’s success is now just that – as champions every other team will be looking to take our scalp so we need to be better prepared than ever. I am looking forward to our pre-season camp in Barbados and the fixture versus MCC in Abu Dhabi, and then we must hit the ground running.”


Date: 31/01/2013 09:55:00 by Paul Bolton
In: Warwickshire | Today |