Former Derbyshire and England bowler steps up to fill role vacated by John Wright

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Feb-2019
Dominic Cork, the former Derbyshire and England fast bowler, has been named as Derbyshire’s head coach for the 2019 T20 Blast season.Cork, 47, has been the club’s T20 bowling coach since 2017, and now takes over from John Wright.Cork spent 13 years of his career at Derby, where he was latterly captain, and went on to win the T20 Blast with Hampshire when they beat Somerset in the 2010 final.”The opportunity was too good to miss and I’m delighted to be back,” Cork said.”The club is dear to my heart – it’s where I started my career – and I’ve been grateful to work alongside John Wright in the last two years as the team has progressed.”We’ve got players here who can win Twenty20 games and we’ve already upset the odds on a number of occasions.”

Dougie Brown reflects on poor finish to their batting as one of the turning points

Peter Della Penna13-Apr-2019UAE may have been denied an opportunity to pull off an upset courtesy bad light, but their head coach Dougie Brown feels it was the correct decision to walk off. When the match was decided by DLS method, Zimbabwe needed 25 off three overs with six wickets in hand.Brown felt the light had been deteriorating badly for some time as play continued for several minutes beyond the sunset time of 5.49pm. This extension was largely a result of a two-hour delay for rain in the first innings that resulted in the chase being truncated to 35 overs, off which Zimbabwe were set a revised 210.”It’s not an ideal way to finish a one-day international, because of bad light,” Brown told ESPNcricinfo. “If I’m honest, it was very, very dark. We probably could have come off a couple of overs earlier but we didn’t. The umpires tried to keep us on the field, which I think was the right decision, while spin was being bowled. But the game was still very much in the balance at 25 required off 18 balls.”I think going off because of the light was the correct decision, but it’s really bitterly disappointing for either team that none of us really got a chance to win the game.”Brown gave credit to Shaiman Anwar and Ghulam Shabber giving UAE a chance to win in the first place. The pair offset Kyle Jarvis’ three-for inside seven overs by putting together 131 on either side of the rain break at the 29-over mark.”We lost the toss again and it was very favourable conditions to bowl,” Brown said. “They bowled really well for the first three wickets but thereafter Shaiman and Shabber played exceptionally well and they deserve a hell of a lot of credit for the way that they went about constructing their innings. Disappointing to not finish as well as we could have done, but was wery happy to be defending 209 in 35 overs.”The pitch was still offering a little bit for us although the outfield was wet so we had to try and make sure we dipped in with the new ball. We bowled pretty well. We didn’t quite manage to get too many wickets with the new ball but we chipped away and got ourselves into a winning position at one stage. It was disappointing not to get across the line but you would expect a Full Member like Zimbabwe with experience in their ranks to fight, and fight is exactly what they did.”Even though UAE was in a decent position in the field at 92 for 4 in the 20th over in the field defending an adjusted total of 209, Brown says the Zimbabwean pair of Regis Chakabva and Peter Moor batted exceptionally well to get back in front in DLS before play was called off. Moor in particular boosted Zimbabwe in the waning overs to finish with an unbeaten 45 off 33 balls.”We need to give a bit of credit to Zimbabwe for the way that they scrapped,” Brown said. “They got themselves into a bit of a hole themselves. We dug ourselves out of one and they managed to dig themselves out of one. At 92 for 4, if they lose a fifth wicket, particularly Moor – we know he’s a dangerous player and as captain he feels that he’s got to carry the team’s outcome on his shoulders. We knew we had to get him out but he didn’t give a chance and he played really well.”Brown also underlined UAE’s poor finish to their innings as one of the factors in the loss. In the six overs left to bat after play was reduced to 35 overs, UAE lost six wickets, including 4 for 4 runs in the last 11 balls.”We messed up the last five overs,” Brown said. “We only scored 31 runs and lost six wickets. We probably pride ourselves in being able to finish an innings pretty well but I think they played well. They bowled well, made good plans and we didn’t quite manage to react to the plans that they had. It’s disappointing to come away having only scored the 31 runs off the last five overs but they deserve a bit of credit for the plans they put in place.”

Dane Vilas scores unbeaten half-century in successful chase as Lancashire jump to top of table

ECB Reporters Network22-May-2019Lancashire secured a hard fought six-wicket victory over promotion rivals Worcestershire midway through the third afternoon to leapfrog them to the top of the Specsavers County Championship Division Two table.Chasing 126 on a challenging Emirates Old Trafford surface, Lancashire slipped to 32 for 4 before lunch, only to recover through their captain Dane Vilas and fifth-wicket partner Rob Jones, who shared an unbroken stand of 95 inside 30 overs. Vilas led the way with 60 not out off 89 balls, while Jones finished unbeaten on 31. It means their 20-point win is their third on the spin to start 2019.It is the first time they have won their first three Championship matches in a campaign since 1995 and the days of Mike Atherton and Wasim Akram when they beat Durham and Warwickshire here and Middlesex at Lord’s.For Worcestershire, who had to do without Wayne Parnell – who has a hamstring injury – in Lancashire’s chase, this was a first defeat after two victories. But they certainly did not make it easy for their hosts.Worcestershire’s second innings was wrapped up in the morning’s fourth over, for the addition of only five more runs to an overnight 149 for 9, in front of 1,500 children for Schools’ Open Day.Richard Gleeson had Joe Leach caught by James Anderson at mid-off following a miscue to secure his third five-wicket haul in four innings. Having claimed five wickets in each innings of the home victory against Northamptonshire last week, he finished with figures of 5 for 37 from 17.2 overs.While Gleeson claimed six wickets in the match, England’s Anderson picked up seven – five in the first innings and two in the second – to make it a successful return from a week out with a knee injury. Sixteen years ago to the day, Anderson made his Test debut against Zimbabwe at Lord’s.Lancashire were rocked early in their chase. Captain Leach struck twice with the new ball, adding to a wicket apiece for Charlie Morris and Ed Barnard.Morris made the initial breakthrough when he had Haseeb Hameed caught at first slip by Riki Wessels with the 12th ball of the innings before Barnard trapped Jake Lehmann lbw as the score fell to 30 for 2 in the 10th over.Leach then struck twice in as many balls in the 13th over to set nerves jangling in the home dressing room. He forced Keaton Jennings to play on and had Liam Livingstone caught by Wessels for a golden duck.Vilas and Jones took the score to 59 for 4 at lunch before snuffing out Worcestershire’s chances afterwards with more calm and composed batting.When Vilas clipped Leach through mid-wicket for four to move into the thirties, he brought up a half-century stand inside 20 overs and took the score to 82 for 4 with 44 more needed.The visitors added far more to this fixture than their haul of three points suggests and will remain confident of keeping pace with Lancashire in pursuit of a top-three finish for promotion.Parnell was probably the game’s standout performer with wickets and runs. He initially brought Worcestershire back into the game from 38 for 7 in the first innings, scoring 63. He then took 5 for 47 with the ball and scored another 25 in the second innings.When Vilas reached his fifty off 73 balls driving Barnard back down the ground for four – his seventh, Lancashire only needed 19. Jones later hit the winning runs.

No. 1 allrounder needs surgery on injured shoulder

ESPNcricinfo staff20-May-2019Deandra Dottin will miss West Indies’ tours of Ireland and England because of a shoulder injury.Dottin, who recently became the No. 1 allrounder on the ICC’s women’s T20I rankings after being named Player of the Series during the February tour of Pakistan, needs surgery on her right shoulder and has been replaced by Britney Cooper in the squad.Cooper has 422 runs from 40 ODIs with a strike rate of 57.18 and 452 T20I runs from 59 matches. She was part of West Indies’ squad during the ICC Women’s World T20 in the Caribbean last November. An agile fielder and big hitter, Cooper earned her place in preparations for the Ireland and England tours on the back of a strong showing in the Cricket West Indies Women’s Championships in Guyana in March.”She is certainly a key player for us and we wish her a speedy recovery to come back and win matches for the West Indies,” interim chairman of selectors Robert Haynes said. “Britney has previous experience at the international level and we believe she will make a positive contribution.”West Indies are at a training camp in Antigua after being strengthened by the return of captain Stafanie Taylor, vice-captain Hayley Matthews, and pace bowler Shakera Selman from the Women’s T20 Challenge in India.They face England in three ODIs between June 6 and 13 and three T20Is between June 18 and 25. Before the England tour, they play Ireland in three T20Is starting May 26.West Indies are seventh on the ICC Women’s Championships points table with 11 points.West Indies squad: Stafanie Taylor (capt), Hayley Matthews, Britney Cooper, Afy Fletcher, Karishma Ramharack, Chedean Nation, Chinelle Henry, Kycia Knight, Kyshona Knight, Shakera Selman, Shamilia Connell, Shemaine Campbell, Natasha McLean, Stacy Ann King.

Sri Lanka’s total seemed sub-par, but a key innings from Angelo Mathews set the tempo for his team in a famous win

Alan Gardner at Headingley21-Jun-2019Sri Lanka had several heroes at Headingley, with captain Dimuth Karunaratne in particular praising the contributions of his two senior stars, Lasith Malinga and Angelo Mathews, for helping orchestrate a famous World Cup win over the hosts and pre-tournament favourites.Having decided to bat, Sri Lanka got off to a poor start at 3 for 2 in the third over. However, after an exhilarating counterattack from Avishka Fernando, which twice saw him hook 90mph Jofra Archer deliveries for six, the middle order contributed significantly for the first time in the tournament, Kusal Mendis making 46 and Mathews anchoring the innings to the finish with an unbeaten 85.Mathews had gone into this game having made scores of 1, 0, 0 and 9 since his ODI comeback last month, but dredged deep to produce a performance of substance. Perhaps the identity of the opposition helped – Mathews averages more than 50 against England and has made four fifties in his last six ODI innings against them – as well as the venue: in 2014, he played one of his finest Test knocks at Headingley to set up a series win for his team.While Sri Lanka’s score of 232 for 9 did not look the most imposing at halfway, Mathews had discerned that the surface was unlikely to get easier to bat on.”It looked like a good flat wicket that played nicely but when we played on it, you could see it got slower and slower,” Karunaratne said. “Angelo told us it was getting slower and slower, we couldn’t get to 280-300 but we could get to 240 and that would be a good total.”He is a good finisher and he did a really good job. And he read the game very well on this track. The middle order was important once the openers got out and he did a good job.”The wicket gave us an advantage, we thought we had a chance. But we needed to take a couple of wickets and we were in the game.”Watch on Hotstar (India only): Mathew’s vital half-century sets up Sri Lanka victory Malinga ensured they would do just that, removing England’s openers and then coming back to dismiss Joe Root and Jos Buttler on the way to figures of 4 for 43 – adding another match-winning performance to his storied World Cup record. He could have finished the game with a five-for, too, had Mendis managed to hold on to a tough chance off Ben Stokes in Malinga’s final over.Armed with Mathews’ intel on the pitch and Malinga’s belief that they could pull off an upset, Sri Lanka had belied their status as the ninth-ranked team out of ten at the tournament.”Mali is a legend,” Mendis said. “He has a lot of variation, an experienced player, he’s played a lot of T20. I think he is a match-winning bowler. He’s telling the fast bowlers, spinners to use variation. He told the players, ‘We can do it today’.”I missed a catch and was scared. When we got the [final] wicket, I gave thanks.”After Malinga had shaken England in their chase of 233, Dhananjaya de Silva then turned the heat up further with three wickets in nine deliveries. His dismissal of the dangerous Moeen Ali, caught at long-off a ball after he had hit Dhananjaya for six, was particularly damaging for England’s chances.Asked if he thought England were still the world’s best players of spin, as Karunaratne had suggested on the eve of the match, Dhananjaya replied with a smile: “They are, they played very well in Sri Lanka last time they came there. This wicket was hard to bat on, it wasn’t coming on to the bat. We bowled tight areas and very good lines. I got three wickets in two overs and turned the game around.”[Moeen] can hit a long ball, so his wicket was the main thing for us. He hit me for six the previous ball, so I just slowed it up and bowled a bit wide.”Dhananjaya described the contributions of Malinga and Mathews as “key” and added that Sri Lanka had renewed confidence of gate-crashing the last four, despite complaints from the team’s management earlier in the tournament that pitches were being prepared to their disadvantage.”These are slower wickets, not the greentops – on these wickets we can beat any team,” Dhananjaya said.Sri Lanka now sit fifth on the table, one point behind India (albeit having played two games more) and with a chance to capitalise against a demoralised South Africa in their next game, at Chester-le-Street next Friday. Karunaratne was however keen that his players do not get too far ahead of themselves.”We want to go one by one, we are not thinking about it. The next game is South Africa so we want to play and win that match so that is our main focus,” he added. “We will keep focusing on that match, if we can win that we will plan for the next game.”

Middlesex claim 213-run lead which is then stretched past 400 through Sam Robson, John Simpson fifties

ECB Reporters Network14-Jul-2019Two weeks ago, Middlesex were bottom of Division Two and Toby Roland-Jones had taken only five wickets at an average of almost three figures. But after beating Gloucestershire last week, they are currently well placed to defeat Glamorgan over the next two days move to within touching distance of the leaders.They closed on 189 for 5, a lead of 402, and are likely to bat until shortly before lunch in the third day and leave Glamorgan a mammoth target in the remaining time.Roland-Jones has played a large part in his team’s resurgence, taking ten wickets in the match last week, four in the first innings here and on a lively Sophia Gardens pitch, will hope to add to his tally in Glamorgan’s second innings.The home team, after their disastrous start the previous evening when they resumed on 25 for 4, made a partial recovery as David Lloyd and Billy Root put on 59 for the fifth wicket. But after Lloyd’s dismissal for 67 and Root for 32, Glamorgan lost their last five wickets for only 28 runs.Roland Jones started the collapse when he had Root caught at second slip, bowled Chris Cooke with one that kept low and followed up by having Lloyd caught behind and Graham Wagg also held by Dawid Malan in the slip cordon.Steve Eskinazi was caught at slip in Lukas Carey’s second over before Nick Gubbins was well caught by Lloyd on the third attempt also at slip, and when Malan was run out by half the length of the pitch following a poor call by his partner, Middlesex were 49 for 3.George Scott made a useful 23 before – for the second time in the game – he shouldered arms and had his off stump removed by Dan Douthwaite. From then Sam Robson and John Simpson settled into their productive partnership, although the pitch was not so bowler friendly as it had been earlier in the game.The fifth-wicket pair both posted fifties, with Simpson particularly strong through the on side but in the final over he drove Marchant de Lange to extra cover where Root held on to a low catch.

The India captain said he felt a bit exhausted during his Port of Spain century, but was determined to kick on because India needed a top-order contribution

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Aug-2019India captain Virat Kohli revealed that he felt “tired” halfway through his innings of 120 against West Indies in the second ODI, played in extreme heat and humidity at Port of Spain, but pulled through because one of India’s top three had to bat long to get them to a match-winning total.Kohli ended up hitting his 42nd ODI century, and was out for 120 in the 42nd over, driving India to what proved to be a match-winning 279 for 7.”Our target is always that one of the top three has to make a big score,” Kohli told Yuzvendra Chahal on after the game. “Shikhar [Dhawan] and Rohit [Sharma] have done it consistently in the past few months. I’ve done it when I’ve got the opportunity. Today, since neither of them got a big score, it was important that I stay for a longer time so that we can get to about 275-280.”Honestly, I was very tired after getting to 60-65, but the situation was such that I had to bat long, and I had to push myself to work a bit harder for the team. If you think about the team, even if you’re tired you get energy from somewhere. But it was quite challenging, also because there had been rain on the day and when the weather is like that it gets even hotter, so it was very humid too.”Elaborating on the lifestyle changes he has adopted and his fitness drive, Kohli said that not being at 100% would mean not doing justice to your team.”My mindset has always been simple: that I should contribute to the team in some way. If there’s an important catch, I want to take it; if there is a crucial run-out, I want to make it,” Kohli said. “I think every player should make their lifestyle and discipline in such a way that on the field you can give your full effort. If you are not giving your full effort on the field, then I don’t think you are doing justice to your team.”The way my lifestyle, training, recovery and diet is, all of it is geared towards making me contribute to the team in every way I can. So on tough days like these, when you have to run a lot for your runs, and in the field also you know the situation demands that you need to make an effort, it [his regimen] helps at those moments, and these small things can make a big difference.”Though Kohli’s innings tired him, on the field he still found energy to break into a jig, at one point even celebrating with Chris Gayle when the latter went past Brian Lara’s run tally in ODIs. Kohli put his good spirits down to being in a good space in his life.”I’m enjoying myself on the field. It is a blessing [to play cricket for India]. I don’t follow a typical mould that if I’m captain I have to stand all seriously,” he said. “I think it’s important to enjoy these moments. If there’s music playing, dance. Crack jokes with the opposition players too. I’m just in a very good space in my life, which is why I start dancing wherever I hear music.”

St Lucia Zouks stayed on fourth place, having lost three of their first four games this season

The Report by Peter Della Penna16-Sep-2019For the second night in a row at Warner Park, the first-innings batsmen were shredded apart. While St Kitts & Nevis Patriots were treated shabbily by the Guyana Amazon Warriors spinners on Saturday night, it was the Patriots pacers that inflicted maximum damage on St Lucia Zouks in a six-wicket win on Sunday evening.Debutant Akeem Jordan was one of four changes to the Patriots XI and galvanised the bowling unit with a four-wicket haul, including three in the Powerplay, to dismantle the heart of the Zouks batting, the visitors scraping their way to 138 for 9. Patriots navigated their way through a pair of rain stoppages in the chase before knocking off the target with 31 balls to spare following a blistering knock from Evin Lewis.Akeem the DreamThe 24-year-old fast bowler had a fairy-tale debut. He struck with his third ball when Andre Fletcher cut straight to Fabian Allen at backward point. Jordan followed it up in his next over getting Rahkeem Cornwall to slash to third man. Bowlers rarely bowl three overs in a row at any stage of a T20 match but Carlos Brathwaite’s persistence to stick with Jordan was rewarded when Kavem Hodge picked out Kjorn Ottley at deep midwicket with a pull in the fifth to make it 33 for 3.The recalled Usama Mir then built on Jordan’s early breakthroughs, striking with his very first ball when Roland Cato’s clumsy paddle flick ballooned off a top edge to Rayad Emrit at short fine leg. Emrit got into the act with the ball in the ninth, inducing a top-edged swat from Thisara Perera to Laurie Evans on the ring at point to make it 52 for 5 and from there the Zouks were behind the game.Colin de Grandhomme did his best to get the Zouks innings back in gear. In the same over that Thisara fell, de Grandhomme struck 16 in three balls off Emrit. But he found the going much tougher against legspinner Mir, eventually falling in a wicket-maiden 12th over skying a drive to Ottley on the cover sweeper rope.Who’s Tommy?Devon Thomas then took centre stage with a pair of sensational catches. The first came on the final ball of the 15th when Darren Sammy was unlucky to be given out off the thigh guard missing a pull down the leg side. But Thomas sold it well with an acrobatic effort supporting the appeal from Sheldon Cottrell.There was no doubt about the edge off the bat of Kesrick Williams two balls later, though. A full ball from Jordan produced the edge that flew to the keeper’s right.Caught wrong-footed, he leaped one-handed to his right to pull off a stunning catch for Jordan’s fourth wicket. At 100 for 8, Hardus Viljoen and Obed McCoy did their best to stretch the innings to the full 20 overs.You just dropped the 13th match of CPL 2019!Coming back into the lineup after missing Saturday night’s loss due to an injury sustained playing football in warm-ups, Lewis tore apart the Zouks attack with five fours and six sixes. But the Zouks had two chances in the first two overs to nip the Lewis knock in the bud, failing on both occasions.The first opportunity came off his second ball when he had yet to score as the left-hander drove hard at McCoy. Cornwall stabbed at a chance high to his left but only managed to parry it to the third man rope. It would have been a regulation catch for a second slip but Sammy opted to stay conservative despite needing to press for wickets. A far easier offering came in the second over. Williams had struck off his second ball getting Thomas to slash to third man and three balls later set a trap for Lewis putting in place a deep square leg. Williams sent down a bouncer that produced a top edge on the attempted pull by Lewis. Kavem Hodge was in perfect position but spilled it badly.After taking two off the drop to move to six, Lewis hooked the next ball for his first maximum and never looked back. He continued to remind Hodge of his error by belting him for two sixes – the first of which brought up a 26-ball fifty – and two fours off the left-arm spinner in the 11th. Hodge finally got him out off a full toss off the last ball of the over. But by that stage the Patriots needed 21 off nine overs and cantered over the line.

Tasmania will split the coaching for the new season with head coach Adam Griffith taking the opportunity to look at the overall set-up of the state

Alex Malcolm18-Sep-2019Tasmania have promoted assistant coach Jeff Vaughan to take over the main coaching role during the Sheffield Shield portion of the season in a move designed to give head coach Adam Griffith a different perspective on Tasmania’s cricket program while developing Vaughan’s coaching credentials.Griffith is the head coach of Tasmania as well as Hobart Hurricanes in the BBL. Adam Voges (WA and Perth Scorchers) and Andrew McDonald (Victoria and Melbourne Renegades) are the only other men who coach teams across all three formats in Australian domestic cricket.Griffith took time away from Tasmania’s pre-season to do a short-term stint as Australia’s bowling coach during the World Cup campaign in England, which allowed Vaughan to run the early part of the preparation for the summer. Griffith’s previous experience under Justin Langer in Western Australia, where he was given opportunities to take the reins for various short-term domestic assignments, gave him the confidence to promote Vaughan to look after the Shield side for the entire summer.”It’s something I’ve been thinking about for 6-12 months now, on how to continually develop our people,” Griffith told ESPNcricinfo. “One of my passions is not only developing our players but helping our coaches develop, including myself.”We were contemplating whether I should step back for a couple of games on tour, which is something that happened with me in WA, I was allowed to take the team away at times and lead the group.”When we sat down and looked at the schedule this year, we’ve got a new High Performance Manager and a new CEO coming in and I think it’s a really important time for our organisation as a whole and our high performance department as a whole, and giving Jeff the opportunity to lead the team on game day and have that autonomy as head coach will hopefully help his development in his space and also allow me to continue to run the program.”I’ll still continue to be the head coach of Tasmanian cricket but on [Shield] game days and leading into the games, Jeff will have that opportunity. I’ll still be involved with the Shield team and still working with the bowlers and I’m really looking forward to seeing how Jeff progresses. He’s earned the right to have this opportunity.”Vaughan’s coaching stocks continue to rise. His influence on Matthew Wade as a batting mentor since returning to Tasmania has not gone unnoticed following Wade’s impressive return to international ranks after dominating domestic cricket.”He’s already starting to think about the Shield, which is brilliant,” Griffith said. “He’s already starting to think about how the team needs to prepare and some training sessions and how we want to play, do we tweak last year, do we do the same things, selection of the team and that sort of stuff. He’s doing that now while I’m focussing on how we’re going to win our first four one day games. That allows us to do that and it allows me to get my head up out of the sand a little bit and have a look at our whole program.”Griffith’s own stocks are high as Tasmanian cricket continues to rebound strongly following an exhaustive independent review in early 2017, led by former Australian great Michael Hussey, after a sustained period of poor results across all formats.Griffith is highly regarded by Langer having worked closely with him during his entire tenure in WA prior to becoming Australia coach. Langer is looking to reshape his own coaching team and CA are yet to find a full-time appointment to replace David Saker, who ended his time as Australia’s bowling coach last summer and Brad Haddin’s contract as Australia’s fielding coach has also come to an end.Griffith said his move to step back from the Shield commitments has nothing to do with the Australian team at this stage. The exit of experienced Cricket Tasmania chief executive Nick Cummins, to a role with Cricket Victoria, and high performance manager Drew Ginn, who has been appointed new executive general manager of high performance at Cricket Australia, has left Cricket Tasmania with some holes to fill. They are still searching for a new CEO but have appointed Simon Insley as Ginn’s replacement.Griffith will coach Tasmania’s Marsh Cup squad as their campaign starts in Perth on Monday. Jordan Silk will captain the side for the first two games in the absence of Wade, who is being rested following the Ashes series. Ben McDermott will keep wicket.

Former Australia allrounder takes over from Paddy Upton for a period of three years from IPL 2020

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Oct-2019Former Australia allrounder Andrew McDonald has been appointed head coach of Rajasthan Royals for a period of three years from IPL 2020. He will replace Paddy Upton who had been in charge of the side in 2019, when Royals finished second from last with just five wins in 14 games.McDonald, who had played four Tests for Australia, is only 38, but has already built strong credentials as a coach, having ended his playing career in 2016. He enjoyed a stellar season as coach in 2018-19, leading Victoria to the one-day and Shield titles in addition to overseeing Melbourne Renegades’ run to their first Big Bash League crown.McDonald has also had coaching stints in franchise cricket, and was named head coach of Birmingham Phoenix in The Hundred in June earlier this year. In IPL 2018, he had served as Royal Challengers Bangalore’s bowling coach. McDonald has also made his mark in English county cricket, having led a revival of Leicestershire from a low base.McDonald, who is currently working with Victoria in the Sheffield Shield, said: “The Rajasthan Royals is a new, exciting challenge for me, and I can’t wait to get started working with our world-class players and coaches in one of the biggest sporting leagues in the world.”McDonald has IPL experience as a player as well, having turned out for Royals Challengers and Delhi Daredevils (who have now been rebranded as Delhi Capitals). In all, he has played 11 games in the league, scoring 123 runs and taking 11 wickets. In the BBL, he has represented Renegades and Sydney Thunder, making 230 runs picking up five wickets in 13 games.Zubin Bharucha, Royals’ head of cricket, welcomed McDonald into the set-up, saying: “Andrew’s innovative, forward-thinking nature, along with his experience in the IPL and success in other leagues is why we have selected him as head coach to help us drive long term success. He is data-focused and an impressive man manager who remains well versed with the rigours of modern day cricket.”