FORMER Worcestershire and England batsman Graeme Hick has been appointed as high performance coach of Cricket Australia’s Centre of Excellence.
The 47-year-old, who retired from playing for the county in 2008, will work with Australia A and Under-19s after working as a consultant coach last winter.
In a career spanning 25 years, Hick scored more than 40,000 first-class runs at an average of 52 including 136 centuries and played 65 tests for England.
“Over the years I have developed a huge amount of respect for Australian cricket and the Baggy Green,” Hick said.
“I am excited about the chance to work with Australia’s young talent and being able to assist in their growth and development.
“This is going to be a great challenge for me and one I am really looking forward to.”
Hick replaces former Australian batsman Stuart Law in the role who took up the head coach position at Queensland Cricket following Darren Lehmann’s departure in June to become head coach of the Australian team.
Pat Howard, Cricket Australia’s executive general manager for team performance, said it was fantastic they could secure Hick’s services full time.
“Graeme knows what it takes to compete at the top level and has had many years’ experience playing in different conditions, which will be vital to the development of our young batters,” he added.
“He will complement the specialist skills with Troy Cooley and Tim Coyle who are responsible for our fast bowling and fielding programs respectively, as well as all national coaching staff in our pathway system including Darren Lehmann.
“One of Graeme’s first tasks will be attending a batting forum that CA is running in October in Sydney. The forum will bring together a number for former Australian cricketers and current coaches and will provide information that will feed into the creation of a national batting program that Graeme will be charged with developing and implementing.”
