CA still mulling over 'split coaching' possibility

Cricket Australia (CA) is reportedly still mulling over appointing different head coaches for different formats in future, although it insisted that head coach Darren Lehmann will retain control of the Test and limited-overs teams for the moment.

The decision to divide the bowling coach's roles between Craig McDermott (Tests) and Ali de Winter (short forms) raised speculation that CA would follow the lead of the England, which has coaching director Andy Flower in charge of the Test team and former spinner Ashley Giles for the one-day team.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, CA team performance boss Pat Howard said that they are still not ruling out splitting the formats and leaving coaches out of certain tours, like they did with Lehmann during the ongoing India tour, as recommended by the Argus report.

Howard further said that the Future Tours Program (FTP) has made coaches going on every tour very difficult for which they have followed the recommendation of leaving coaches out of some tours in order to reinvigorate their focus at certain times.

The report mentioned that assistant coach Steve Rixon is in charge of the Australian team playing in India in the ongoing ODI series.

Howard however, said that the bowling coach changes is focused on the coaches' core technical skill rather than dictated by the FTP.