Brown earns top Warwickshire job

Warwickshire have named Dougie Brown, their assistant coach and Academy director, as the permanent successor to Ashley Giles as their new director of cricket.

Brown has fought off other leading candidates for the job such as Graeme Welch, his former Warwickshire team-mate and the county's bowling coach, and the West Indies coach Ottis Gibson, who has also been discussing the details of a promised new contract with the national side. Welch, meanwhile, has been given the compensation of promotion to assistant coach.

Brown, who worked in close association with Giles as Warwickshire won the Championship last summer, and also reached the final of the CB40, is a former England and Scotland allrounder who can be sure to bring a passionate approach to the role. He is also a former PCA chairman.

"We wanted to test the external market but also be sure that we stuck with what has brought the club success," Colin Povey, the Warwickshire chief executive, said. "In the end we had many high-quality candidates - a testament to the strength of the team and the club - and concluded that Dougie was the ideal man for the job."

"Dougie has been an integral part of the club's success over many years and there really isn't anyone more committed to the club than him. It is hard to define exactly what 'a Bear' is, but whatever it is, he epitomises it. No-one has more passion for Warwickshire and no-one understands the culture of the club and the current squad better.

"Much the same could be said for Graeme Welch. He has done an exceptional job and we value him enormously. To reflect that, he is being promoted to the position of assistant coach and, while he will naturally be disappointed at missing out on the main job, I'm sure he will continue to support Dougie and the team as well as ever.

"In the end, we felt that Dougie's background beyond cricket - his media work, his experience as chairman of the PCA and his experience with budget management - made him our ideal candidate."

Other candidates for the Warwickshire role included David Parsons, the ECB performance director, David Hemp, former Glamorgan and Bermuda captain and now coaching at Solihull School and Andy Moles, the former Scotland, Kenya and New Zealand coach, who was discounted before the interview stage.