• 42-year-old leaves county champions Essex to take up permanent role • Former England seamer to start in January, after Ashes TestsChris Silverwood, the mastermind behind Essex winning the county championship this year, has accepted the role as England’s fast bowling coach. It is a blow for Essex, who lose the head coach who oversaw promotion in 2016 during his first season in charge, followed by this summer’s title win. Anthony McGrath, his deputy at Chelmsford, is likely to take over in an interim role and is also favourite to get the job permanently. Certainly Jamie Porter thrived under his watch, with the 24-year-old’s 75 wickets central to the triumph. Jimmy Anderson, England’s all-time leading wicket-taker, said at the back end of the summer that he saw the next bowling coach being primarily in charge of bringing through the next generation of quicks behind himself and the similarly established Stuart Broad.

Source: The Guardian October 31, 2017 14:29 UTC