Exclusive: Yorkshire axe coaching staff in jobs shake-up

The Yorkshire Post understands the trio have not been offered new jobs as the club reorganise their coaching set-up beneath director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon.

Last month, Yorkshire invited the five coaches who work below Moxon to reapply for four new positions.

They advertised for a senior coach to work with the first team, another to work with the second XI, a director of cricket development responsible for the Academy and age-group squads and a development manager to work beneath the director of cricket development.

Former Yorkshire and England all-rounder Craig White, who had been serving as first-team coach, quickly ruled himself out of a role in the rearranged structure, opting instead to pursue an ambition to become an international umpire.

But Oldham, the club’s Academy director and bowling coach, along with batting coach Sharp and second team coach/assistant bowling coach Blain, all reapplied to stay at Headingley Carnegie, along with operations manager Ian Dews.

The four men were interviewed at the end of last month, with former England captain Michael Vaughan believed to have been involved in the interviewing process, but I understand only one of the quartet will be retained, with Dews set to become the new director of cricket development.

Sharp and Blain are thought to have applied for the second XI position, with Sharp opting to take redundancy once his application for that job was rejected.

Blain is then believed to have put his name forward for the development manager’s role along with Oldham, only for Yorkshire to indicate they had opted to look elsewhere.

Yorkshire last night declined to comment on the situation surrounding Oldham, Sharp and Blain.

It is understood certain formalities have yet to be completed and redundancy terms finalised.

However, a club spokesman told the Yorkshire Post: “The club have reviewed the coaching structure, advertising for the posts internally and externally, and that process is currently near completion.

“We hope to make an announcement early next week.”

Yorkshire have identified the coaches they want to work with Moxon but are keen to wait until everything has been confirmed before making it official.

They will be anxious to avoid a repeat of the Chris Adams fiasco, when they unveiled the former England batsman as their new captain/director of cricket in 2006 before he had signed a contract, only for Adams to subsequently get cold feet and walk away.

A number of high-profile figures are thought to have thrown their hats into the ring for the new roles, including former Yorkshire and Australia pace bowler Jason Gillespie.

But Yorkshire were last night staying tight-lipped as to the identity of the men who will replace Messrs White, Oldham, Sharp and Blain.

Oldham, 63, is the most high-profile casualty of the restructuring exercise, having served Yorkshire since 1983 in a coaching capacity and, prior to that, for seven seasons as a player.

He acquired an enviable track record for identifying and developing young bowlers and is widely respected within the game.

During his time at Headingley, Oldham brought on such international stars as Darren Gough, Matthew Hoggard, Ryan Sidebottom, Chris Silverwood and current England pace man Tim Bresnan.

He was also no mean pace bowler himself; during his career with Yorkshire and Derbyshire, Oldham captured 273 wickets in first-class cricket at 32.67 and 240 List A wickets at 23.18.

Sharp, 52, had served as batting coach for a number of years after representing Yorkshire as a left-handed batsman between 1976 and 1990.

Thought at one stage to possess greater potential than David Gower, Sharp captained England at U-19 level and famously scored 260 not out for England Young Cricketers against West Indies Young Cricketers at Worcester in 1978.

During a first-class career that included a spell with Griqualand West in South Africa, Sharp scored 9,962 runs at 30.84.

He was also an accomplished one-day performer, scoring 4,963 runs in List A cricket at 27.41.

Blain, 32, played County Championship cricket for Yorkshire between 2004 and 2006 after joining the club from Northamptonshire.

Yorkshire took the decision to reorganise their coaching set-up in an effort to take some pressure off Moxon. The former Yorkshire and England batsman had eight people reporting to him last summer, including physiotherapist Scot McAllister, strength and conditioning coach Tom Summers and club administrator Janet Bairstow.

It is hoped the new structure will enable Moxon to spend more time focusing on cricketing matters.

Yorkshire have a big year ahead of them after they suffered relegation last season from the County Championship First Division and they are anxious to bounce back at the first attempt.