Bolter de Winter 'a practical kind of guy'

Allan Donald. Craig McDermott. Allister de Winter? Between them, the first two men have taken 621 Test wickets. A former fringe allrounder with Tasmania, de Winter scraped together 35 first-class victims at an unflattering average. And yet, all three are in the mix to become Australia's new bowling coach.

de Winter might seem out of place in the company of such champions, but he has already outlasted former internationals like Jason Gillespie and Andy Bichel to reach the final round of interviews. It is a vote of confidence in de Winter's post-playing career, during which time he has worked as a zone coaching manager in Western Australia, and as head of Bangladesh's National Cricket Academy.

As the assistant to Tasmania's head coach Tim Coyle since 2007, de Winter has had a strong focus on helping the state's fast bowlers. He helped guide the Tigers to the Sheffield Shield last summer, and Coyle believes de Winter would be a valuable addition to Cricket Australia's staff if he gets the job that has been vacated by Troy Cooley, another former fringe fast bowler from Tasmania.

"The other guys have had outstanding careers at Test level and one-day level," Coyle said. "Ali obviously doesn't have that, but he's been coaching for ten years. It depends how you weigh it all up, and what Australian cricket needs.

"He's got a similar background to Troy Cooley. They've had a similar growth as coaches. Ali has done his time at domestic cricket level more than Troy did. Troy went through the academy, whereas Ali has been to two states and he's been overseas and worked in Bangladesh. He's got experience with the Australian team in the elite coaching program.

"He's very hands-on. That's where he's based his coaching philosophy, with being hands-on with his players. He's a practical kind of guy. He's got a good grasp on the technical side of pace bowling, through all the experience that he's had. He also has a very good idea of how to implement those things into a game situation."

Should de Winter get the job as Australia's bowling coach, he will be very familiar with at least one of his new charges, the Tasmanian Ben Hilfenhaus. But de Winter has also played a key role in the development of newer faces on the fast-bowling scene in Tasmania, several of whom had breakthrough seasons in 2010-11.

"If you look at the guys who have really put their hand up this year, Adam Maher, James Faulkner and Luke Butterworth are all in the top five wicket-takers in the country, domestically," Coyle said. "Ali has had a hands-on role with all those three.

"At this level, it's about getting sound technique and being efficient and then being able to apply that to the game. He's also worked with developing bowlers over the years, so he has a good understanding of the development of a bowler and the phases they go through."

All the same, de Winter, 43, faces a tough ask to be offered the job ahead of former champions such as McDermott and Donald. The new bowling coach is expected to be announced in the next few days.