McInnes appointed senior coach at Centre of Excellence

Richard McInnes has been appointed senior coach at Australia's Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. McInnes, who has already worked at the Australian Academy, joins four other senior coaches - Dene Hills, Brian McFadyen, Steve Jenkin and Jamie Siddons - to complete the set-up. Siddons will manage the centre's cricket programs under the head coach Tim Nielsen.

The appointment of McInnes marks a return to his native Australia; in the interim he had a successful stint as Bangladesh's high performance manager, a position he held since 2003. The highlight of his tenure was steering the Under 19 side to success in the World Cup plate final in March 2004.

But his time with Bangladesh was not without controversy: he allegedly threatened a journalist in February 2003 after a barrage of questions in one press conference suggesting his contract should be terminated and asking about his statement that there were only three qualified coaches in the country. But he apologised to the media in an official press release soon afterwards, and good relations were restored in the following weeks with success in the plate.