Bowling coach Saker to leave England role

David Saker, the England bowling coach, is to leave his role to become head coach of Melbourne Renegades. He is contracted until the end of September but could leave before the Ashes this summer.

Saker, 48, has been part of the most successful era in England's history but has increasingly come under criticism. Succeeding Otis Gibson in April 2010, Saker was part of the backroom staff that helped England win a first global one-day trophy - the World T20 in 2010 - and a first Ashes series victory in Australia for 24 years.

But Saker's failure to help bring through a new group of fast bowlers, England's general struggle in one-day cricket, and particularly the Steven Finn fiasco have blotted his record and many anticipated his sacking after the Ashes whitewash last winter. But he remained in place as England disappointed at the 2014 World T20, lost a home Test series to Sri Lanka and last week crashed out of the World Cup.

"My first three years in the job for English cricket was a bit of a fairytale," he told the Melbourne Age. "But like most things it's hard to keep that form up. We lost some senior players, which made it a little bit harder."

He is now keen to return home to Victoria, potentially before the end of his contract in September, and broaden his experience beyond just the bowling brief, with ambitions to take charge of a Sheffield Shield team.

"I'm very excited to join the club and come back to Melbourne - which is home - and work with everyone involved," Saker said. "The Big Bash League is being talked about worldwide in cricket circles and it's great to be back working in the T20 format."

Renegades's chief executive, Stuart Coventry, added: "David is the right person to lead the club over the next two years and drive us into winning positions. David has been involved in the high-performance environment at the international level and had great success with England across all formats over the last five years. We'll now give him time to review our list closely and work out how he wants to mould things in the months ahead."