Marsh signs on as high performance director

Rod Marsh, the former England and Australia Academy coach, has been appointed as a high performance director with the South Australian Cricket Association. Marsh, who is also involved with the Global Cricket Academy in Dubai, will plot the direction of the state's representative teams from the under-age sides to the senior squads.

Marsh finished his stint with the ECB Academy last September and signed up with South Australia as a consultant two months later. "The way I see it, it will be sitting above all the senior cricket," Marsh told AAP of his new post. "Obviously the Redbacks and the [women's team] Scorpions have their coaches who are doing a great job. I will be there as an assist for them, if I am needed, but certainly they will run their own race to a large degree."

Marsh said he was really interested in monitoring the younger players. "To dominate Australian cricket is the ultimate goal and you have got to have juniors coming through for that to happen," he said. The new role starts immediately and he will break up the year by spending three months in Dubai and nine in Adelaide.

"Rod is one of the finest cricket minds in the world - if not the best," Mike Deare, the SACA chief executive, said. "We are thrilled that he has accepted our invitation to lead high performance cricket in South Australia. The SACA is keen to see success in the coming seasons, and we believe Rod is the best person to lead our teams to that success."