Yorkshire target Darren Lehmann and Chris Silverwood, as they look to add two ex-Ashes coaches
- Lehmann was Australia’s national coach for five years but resigned after allegedly manipulating the ball
- Silverwood, 49, was replaced at the England helm by Brendon McCullum in 2022
Yorkshire have set their sights on Darren Lehmann and Chris Silverwood in their search for a new management team for Headingley.
The two former Ashes coaches are front-runners for the positions of director of cricket and head coach after Ottis Gibson – who held both roles – was told his contract will be terminated in September.
Both men are former Yorkshire players and are said to have been identified by the three-man cricket panel of Michael Vaughan, Gavin Hamilton and Ashley Metcalfe, which currently advises chairman Colin Graves.
Anthony McGrath would also have been an interesting player but he was promoted to director of cricket earlier this week amid a restructuring at Essex.
Lehmann, 54, coached Australia for five years but resigned after the team’s ball-tampering scandal and moved to domestic cricket, taking charge of Leeds-based Northern Superchargers for the inaugural Hundred season.
Silverwood, 49, has just returned to the UK after a two-year spell with Sri Lanka, having been replaced at the England helm by Brendon McCullum
He resigned two years ago to reduce his working hours after suffering a heart attack on his 50th birthday, but he could return if he joins Yorkshire, where he is regarded as the club’s best ever foreign player.
Silverwood, 49, has just returned to the UK from a two-year spell with Sri Lanka, having been replaced by Brendon McCullum at the England helm in 2022. He has taken up an assistant coaching role at Oval Invincibles for the next four weeks, indicating a break from the international circuit is not on his agenda.
Mail Sport can reveal that Yorkshire’s players were told immediately after Friday night’s failed game against Nottinghamshire and securing a place in the quarter-finals of the Vitality Blast that Gibson, 55, would be leaving the club at the end of the season.
Former West Indies and South Africa coach Gibson’s tenure has been challenging to say the least, with 2022 bringing on director of cricket Darren Gough as the club reeled from a mass layoff of former staff, and they were relegated on the final afternoon of the season.
Lehmann, 54, was Australia’s national coach for five years but resigned after the team’s ball-tampering scandal
Hopes of promotion in 2023 were dashed in July when the club were handed a 48-point penalty over their handling of the Azeem Rafiq racism scandal, leaving them at the bottom of the Second Division.
Yorkshire are well-placed in the County Championship this year, having won two innings in their last two games to move within four points of second place with five games remaining. But austerity measures following the club’s latest annual loss of £2.7m have added to Headingley’s huge debts. As a result, Gibson has been combining the roles of director of cricket and head coach since Gough’s departure in April, and overseas recruitment has been limited.