Siddons named coach of Wellington

Jamie Siddons has been confirmed as the new coach of Wellington after signing a three-year deal. Siddons, who coached Bangladesh from October 2007 until his departure in April this year, will take over the position vacated by his fellow Australian Anthony Stuart, who is now in charge at New South Wales.

"Jamie is a world-class coach and his international experience will be an invaluable addition to our professional and high performance cricket environment in Wellington," Cricket Wellington's chief executive Gavin Larsen said. "Jamie is passionate about the game and he will bring a fresh perspective to the Wellington Firebirds, and we look forward to him leading us forward into a new era of success."

Siddons, 47, will take up the role in July and faces a challenge to turn Wellington into a winning outfit. The side hasn't finished higher than fifth in any format in the past two summers, and Siddons believes one of the keys to improving Wellington's results will be to find more runs from the batsmen.

"I looked at all the players and their averages, and even the senior players are not in the 40s with the bat," Siddons told the Dominion Post when he applied for the job. "So one thing is to turn that around and turn their performances around."

Prior to taking on the Bangladesh coaching job, Siddons was an assistant under John Buchanan with Australia's national side. Buchanan, who is now the director of cricket with New Zealand Cricket, was part of the panel that appointed Siddons, who beat Matthew Maynard and the Wellington assistant coach Shane Deitz for the role.