England hires coaches Saker, Hussey ahead of T20 World Cup

LONDON (AP) — England’s coaching group will have a distinctly Australian feel at the Twenty20 World Cup taking place Down Under next month.

Already led by an Australian in head coach Matthew Mott, England has also hired two more people from Down Under — its former fast-bowling coach, David Saker, and ex-international batter Michael Hussey — to be part of the backroom team for the tournament.

Saker, who will begin his consultancy contract during the forthcoming T20 series in Pakistan that precedes the T20 World Cup, spent five years with the England men’s team before leaving in 2015. He helped to build the bowling attack that took the team to No. 1 in the test ranking as well as winning the Ashes in 2010-11.

Barely a year after leaving the England set-up, Saker was on the other side of the Ashes divide, working as Australia’s bowling coach. More recently, he worked as an assistant coach to Mickey Arthur with Sri Lanka.

Hussey, fondly known as “Mr. Cricket,” has acted as a batting consultant for numerous teams since retiring. He has coached with Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings as well being director of cricket with Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash.

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