Reports | Andrew McDonald to take over as Justin Langer’s senior assistant in Australian team

At the beginning of Australia’s long home summer, head coach Justin Langer was short-staffed with Brad Haddin leaving at the end of the Ashes but Cricket Australia seem to have come up with an able replacement. Victoria coach Andrew McDonald is all set to take over as the senior assistant coach of the Aussies as negotiations are underway.

In a groundbreaking deal, Mcdonald might be allowed to continue his role as a coach in the overseas leagues. McDonald serves as the coach of Birmingham in England's new Hundred competition, in addition to being the coach of Rajasthan Royals in the IPL. This freedom will add to the earning capacity of the Victoria coach which none of the previous assistant coaches had. These concessions might very well open the gates for legendary former Aussie players to work alongside Langer as the restrictions were pretty much the only thing stopping them.

Inclusion of McDonald would be a great relief for Langer who was shouldering the Kangaroos’ responsibility almost single-handedly across all formats. Moreover, the experience of McDonald with Leicestershire, Victoria and the Renegades could prove handy when Aussies go offshore and at home as well. Talking about how tough it is to put together a good coaching staff, Langer shared that CA should be creative and agile, in a market full of new opportunities to earn, to rope in the right people for the job.

"It's like building any team, no different to picking the cricket team, you've got to get the right people who are available," Langer told ESPNCricinfo. "What I'm learning quickly and Cricket Australia are learning quickly is you've got to be quite creative and agile in how we work it. It's a new market with opportunities in commentary, there's also opportunities with T20 competitions around the world, opportunities with the Hundred in the winter.

"So we have to be agile, we have to be creative and I also know we've got to get great people around us. We've been lucky since I've been in the job we've had great people around us the whole time and we'll continue to work hard to make sure there's great people around the Australian cricket team in this new market we live in.

"We've got so many good people in Australian cricket but I'd rather wait a bit longer to get the right people than just put it in for the sake of putting it in."

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