Allan Donald For England?

[KevD]

It seems Allan Donald has applied to replace Troy Cooley to be England's new bowling coach when Cooley leaves in May.
Whilst dissapointed to see Cooley leaving, as he done a great job helping are bowling attack become one of the potent in test cricket, I can't think of many beter than Donald to replace him.
Having played county cricket for many years he knows the players and would have an idea of the younger emerging bowlers.
While it would be nice to have an Englishman doing the job, I can't see anyone who could do it. Darren Gough would be the only one with the quality and he wants to go on playing and I dont know how well a recent former team-mate would fit in as coach.
Cooleys done the hard work, now just needs a skilled experienced Test bowler to keep it going - Sounds like Allan Donald

[Ian J]

I'm not sure that a great bowler necessarily makes a great coach, after all Troy Cooley was hardly earth shattering in his bowling career but he did seem to know a lot about the bio mechanics of bowling.

[la gran siete]

Great players rarely become great coaches. This seems to apply to most sports. Maybe they have different mindsets

[Lex]

South Africa don't want him as a coach and they are not exactly blessed with bowling talent at the moment... In the VB sereis match against Australia the other day I don't think anyone other than Pollock managed to bowl an over without a no ball in it!!

[scrapbook]

Is he doing any coaching at the moment?

[KevD]

Alan Donald has been taken on by the ECB on a short tem consultancy role.

Think this is good news, it was mentioned when this thread was first about that being a great bowler wont make him a gret coach and I agree, but I dont believe these guys in the England team nedd to be taught how to bowl by a coach, so bringing in Donald to try and help what was the worlds best pace attck get back to that form is a great move

[Toon-man]

First job he needs to do is get Simon Jones fit and bowling again. England have missed him...

[Speedoguy]

I'm sure they would listen with more interest to what Allan Donald has to say than Kevin Shine - lets hope he gets Harmy and co back to their best Ashes 2005 form.

Will also be good for the newbies coming through as well.

[KevD]

Donald to coach England pacemen

Former South Africa paceman Allan Donald is to help coach England's fast bowlers on a short-term basis.

The 40-year-old recently expressed an interest in becoming the team's bowling coach if Kevin Shine, who does the job now, is asked to focus on the Academy.

He will act as a consultant for the last two Tests against West Indies and the one-day series which follows.

Donald took 330 wickets in 72 Tests and 272 in 164 one-day internationals during an illustrious playing career.

He has been brought into the coaching set-up at a time when England's leading paceman Steve Harmison is struggling to find his best form.

Renowned for his accuracy and speed, Bloemfontein-born Donald was one of the key figures in South Africa's post-apartheid success, becoming the first Proteas bowler to take 300 Test wickets.

Donald, who also thrived in English county cricket at Warwickshire, said last week about the full-time bowling coach role: "I would love to do that job - it's a very high-profile job.

"With all the talent there is in England it will be fantastic to work with that."

Shine has been in his post since Troy Cooley left after the 2005 Ashes series to become Australia's bowling coach.

England head coach Peter Moores has already appointed former Zimbabwe captain Andy Flower as his assistant as he looks to get the England team back on track after the 5-0 whitewash by Australia, which was followed by a disappointing World Cup performance.

He said on Monday: "We know Alan's reputation as a player. We're just making sure whatever we bring over to add to our set-up fits in and is right.

"Allan's very keen to come which says a lot about English cricket that he wants to come over and coach but we're looking at all our options.

"Kevin has done a fantastic job. He has a big responsibility for looking after the top end and making sure the next crop of fast bowlers is coming through, so anyone we bring over will be working with Kevin and under him with his guidance."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cric...nd/6678765.stm

[Ian J]

I hope that this is a good move as the ECB can certainly afford to pay for the best coaching in the world. I think that Andy Flower as the batting coach is definitely a move in the right direction

[leej]

I see Alan Donald has decided not to continue coaching England. http://othernews.uk.myway.com/articl...90972203A.html

Whether this is good or bad news I'm not sure as Englands bowling has been too up and down.

Don't know much about Ottis Gibson from Durham but hopefully he can especially help Harmison.

.

[Ian J]

As an avid Durham supporter I am a little annoyed with AD as I was hoping that Ottis Gibson would play for one more season before taking up a coaching role wherever.

I think that it's a plot to stop Durham from winning the County Championship as they've taken away Harmison and Collingwood and only returned Plunkett to the fold having coached his natural ability out of him. It would seem that Peter Moores who of course is ex Sussex has now pinched Phil Mustard for England and is going to all sorts of lengths to make sure that we lose our most effective bowler too just so that Sussex can maintain their huge advantage

[la gran siete]

At long last Sussex has shown itself to be good at something

[leej]

Originally Posted by leej

Don't know much about Ottis Gibson from Durham...

I really need to pay some attention to county cricket. 80 wickets this season and former test player

[Ian J]

You obviously didn't watch the Friends Provident final as apart from swatting a couple of huge sixes whilst batting he also took two wickets with the first two balls of Durham's reply and won the match of the match award.

He also took all ten wickets in a County Championship innings against Hampshire and won the Professional Cricketers' Association's award for player of the year