David Saker denies planning to quit England role for job in Australia

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/feb/04/david-saker-england

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David Saker, the England bowling coach, has strongly denied that he is about to leave his role in order to coach in Australia.

There have been rumours linking him in particular to the head coach job at Queensland from which the former Australia batsman Stuart Law was recently sacked. Saker is currently on a fishing trip in Victoria before rejoining the England squad in Sydney to prepare for the forthcoming World Cup, but he told the Guardian: “I have definitely not been offered any jobs in Australia.”

The 48-year-old replaced Ottis Gibson as England’s bowling coach in 2010, having previously played state cricket for Victoria and Tasmania, before coaching both Victoria and Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League.

His current contract is due to expire at the end of September. He had previously expressed a desire to extend that, but the onerous nature of touring with England, and the fact that he was unable to take some time off that had been promised previously, has changed his thinking. “It is not my intention to carry on beyond September,” he said. “I will definitely be moving on then.”

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Ideally, he would like a job in domestic cricket in England. He is very much an Anglophile, enjoying living in the Cotswolds. He has a young family who are well settled, and a year ago he took out British citizenship. “If a county job came up then I would probably have to leave to take that up,” he said.

“I would also have to think about any jobs in Australia that were offered to me. But as it stands, no one has been in contact. As it stands I shall be fully focused on the World Cup and then on helping England win back the Ashes.

“I don’t know where these rumours start but I think it is all a case of people seeing a lot of jobs around in Australia, trying to put two and two together and coming up with five.”

He did explain that in order to finish in September, he must give six months’ notice, which would mean the end of March and perhaps some confusion arose from this.