Sarah Taylor & Ashley Wright join coaching staff

Sussex Cricket is delighted to announce the addition of Sarah Taylor and Ashley Wright to its coaching staff for the forthcoming season.

Supporting the full-time coaching team, the pair will work with the professional squad and the Sussex Cricket Pathway on a part-time basis.

Sarah will focus on working with the club’s wicketkeepers. Widely regarded as one the best ‘keepers of all time, Sarah earned 226 England caps in a 13-year international career and has the most wicketkeeping dismissals, 227, in the history of women’s international cricket. She backed up her feats behind the stumps with over 7,000 international runs.

Ash will assist Sussex’s lead batting coach, Jason Swift. The former Leicestershire player is a Level 4 coach, who specialises in human movement and biomechanics. He has previously worked with Surrey and Bangladesh Premier League side, Rajshahi Kings, and was national head coach of Guernsey for four years.

Sarah said, “I’m really pleased about working with the club’s wicketkeepers. From Ben Brown and Phil Salt in the professional squad and down through the pathway, we have a really talented group of keepers at Sussex who I am looking forward to working with immensely. I want to share my experience and expertise to help them get the most out of their game. I’m a big believer in keeping things simple and perfecting the basics so that players can enjoy and express themselves with the gloves.”

Ash said, “I am honoured to be part of the Sussex coaching team, working as the professional batting support, and equally thrilled to be working with a very talented group of young batters in the pathway”.

Commenting on the addition of Sarah and Ash to the coaching team, Ian Salisbury, Sussex’s joint men’s head coach, said, “As with everything we do, the decision to add Sarah and Ash to our coaching staff is based on our strategic aim to produce homegrown or ‘Sussex-fied’ players who will ensure the club is competing in all formats and providing as many players for England as possible in the future.

“They both bring a huge amount of cricketing knowledge, skill and experience, as well as a fantastic work ethic, to the entirety of our player pathway. Equally as important, Sarah and Ash both fit our mantra of coaching the whole person, not just the cricketer very well.”

James Kirtley, Sussex’s other men’s head coach, explained what the pair will add through their roles, “Sarah has so much to offer our players, but also our environment. She is hugely skilled in the world of wicketkeeping, but she will also bring so much good as a person around our group. She adds great perspective to a situation and as a coach she provides an excellent sounding board for ideas and is a fantastic communicator. I am certain she will become a huge asset to our setup.

“With his slightly different skill set, Ash will add tremendous value to the work we do with our batters. His knowledge of human movement coupled with his experience of playing is an exciting combination. He has already built some solid relationships with our players and we are seeing them incorporate some of his ideas into their games. I am particularly looking forward to seeing the work he does when it comes to hitting in limited-overs cricket.”