Shelley Nitschke has been named the head coach of the Australian Women’s Cricket Team for the upcoming four years. This confirmation was given by Cricket Australia on Tuesday. After Matthew Mott’s departure in May, Nitschke, 45, was chosen as temporary head coach. In July, he led Australia to gold in its historic debut at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Nitschke, one of the best all-rounders in the world, made his Australian debut in 2005 at the age of 28. Since then, he has played in 80 One-Day Internationals, 36 Twenty20 matches, and six Test matches. She scored more than 3,000 runs throughout that time and took more than 150 wickets with her left-arm orthodox bowling.
She won four consecutive Belinda Clark Awards (2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012) and was awarded the ICC Women’s Cricket Player of the Year in 2010. Following her retirement from international cricket in 2011, Nitschke has a number of coaching positions with South Australia, the Adelaide Strikers, and Cricket Australia. From 2015 to 2017, she also played for the Adelaide Strikers for two seasons.
She was designated the Australian Women’s Team’s assistant coach in 2018 before being hired as the Perth Scorchers WBBL team’s head coach in 2019. She guided the team to its first WBBL championship last summer.
Shelley Nitschke reacts after her appointment
Nitschke will fulfil her obligations under her contract with the Perth Scorchers through this season. Later she will resign at the end of the WBBL.
“I’m honoured to have been given this opportunity to lead the team full-time and to continue to build on the legacy created by Matthew Mott. While I enjoyed my time working as an assistant coach, I feel the time is right to step up and lead this group in what’s shaping as a new era with a new-look coaching group and the retirement of Rachael Haynes,” she said in an official release.
“The loss of Rach will no doubt be felt, but it presents a great opportunity for others to put their hands up both from a leadership perspective as well as with the bat and in the field,” she added.
Australia’s five-match T20 tour of India will be Nitschke’s first task. It will be followed by a home bilateral series against Pakistan in January. This will be to complete Australia’s preparations for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa in February.
Follow MadOverCricket for the latest cricket news, cricket match updates, live cricket scores, cricket series updates, and more!
