James Kirtley, Ian Salisbury to share head coach role at Sussex
Nov 04, 2020
Sussex [UK], November 4 : Sussex have announced that current spin bowling coach, Ian Salisbury, will take charge as head coach during the first-class and one-day portions of the season while current pace bowling coach, James Kirtley, will be responsible for the T20 competition.
The appointment comes after the departure of Jason Gillespie, who has returned home to coach South Australia after three years at Hove.
Salisbury, who made 280 appearances across all formats for the club, returned to Sussex earlier in the year after a spell leading England's disability side.
"I am immensely proud, honoured and humbled to be given this opportunity at the club where my professional cricketing journey started in 1989. The chance to work in unison with James is one I'm hugely excited about. Our shared vision and strategy is to bring sustained success to Sussex. We have the talent within the squad and the potential talent coming through from the most impressive academy in the country to achieve this," Salisbury said in a statement.
Kirtley spent 15 years on the south coast winning multiple honours including the Twenty20 Cup in 2009. He moved into Gillespie's backroom team 12 months ago.
"It will be exciting to help find the next level with the T20 side and with the help of the coaching staff, senior players and analysts I am confident we will be successful in discovering the small margins and making the changes necessary to take us further in the competition," he said.
"It will be great to continue working with Ian Salisbury in the other competitions. We have worked in tandem for a number of teams over the course of the last five years and obviously back to our playing days at Sussex. We have a vision for the club and I hope we can deliver this through a very thought-out strategic approach over the course of time," Kirtley added.
Prior to his roles with Sussex, Kirtley has been involved with coaching Namibia, England Women, England Physical Disability and Bede's School. Salisbury has worked with England Women, England U17s and U19s, Berkshire, Surrey and was head coach of the England Physical Disability squad from 2017 until earlier this year.
