Allan Donald, the South Africa pace bowling great, has been given a role with England’s coaching staff, it was announced on Friday.
In a statement, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said Donald would assist England’s fast bowlers on a short-term consultancy basis from the lead-in to the third Test at Old Trafford through to the end of the one-day series against the West Indies in July.
The statement said the 40-year-old Donald, who has over 200 Test and one-day caps to his name, will work with the England squad and with other elite England qualified fast bowlers and will fall under the direction of England head coach, Peter Moores, and ECB fast-bowling Coach, Kevin Shine.
Former English county bowler Shine has come under pressure since succeeding Troy Cooley as England’s bowling coach.
England’s pacemen failed to fire for much of their recent 5-0 Ashes drubbing and were largely off-target in the first Test of the ongoing four-match series against the West Indies at Lord’s, their drop in form coinciding with the return of the highly regarded Cooley to his native Australia.
Cooley, who now holds a similar position with Australia, was replaced by Shine, whose role has been called into question amidst suggestions he will soon be concentrating solely on developing up-and-coming England bowlers.
Donald, who knows English cricket well from his time as an overseas player with Warwickshire, has made no secret of his desire to work with England’s quicks, having previously acted as a mentor to Matthew Hoggard when the two were in the same Free State side in South Africa. — AFP
