Seems dream Cane to nothing
THE coaching future of Justin Langer remains a mystery with the Hobart Hurricanes set to unveil its set-up for BBL12 without the former national coach.
The Hurricanes dream team of Ricky Ponting and Langer remains just that with the Mercury understanding Tigers coach Jeff Vaughan will be announced as Hobart coach on Friday. Langer resigned from the men’s national coaching role after Cricket Australia only offered him a one-off six-month contract extension after retaining the Ashes and guiding Australia to its first T20 World Cup.
It is believed he is still not ready to head back into coaching yet, even with his great mate Ponting as the Hurricanes head of strategy.
Appointing Vaughan (pictured) will be somewhat of a backflip for the Hurricanes, with Cricket Tasmania previously adamant it wanted a separate Tigers and Hobart coach after the same set up failed under Adam Griffith.
Vaughan, a former assistant under Langer, will be supported by former South Australian and Strikers coach Darren Berry in a strategy and assistant coaching role and former Australian one-day all-rounder James Hopes as bowling coach. Ponting already has a strong relationship with Hopes.
Hopes is the bowling coach for the Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League, where Ponting is the head coach.
Berry also has extensive T20 coaching experience as not only was he in charge at the Strikers and a Sydney Sixers assistant coach, and was Shane Warne’s assistant in the IPL when Warne led the Rajasthan Royals to the first ever IPL title.
The Hurricanes have a strong list on paper already with the likes of skipper Matthew Wade, Ben McDermott, D’Arcy Short, Nathan Ellis and Riley Meredith all having represented Australia in the shortest format, while Tim David has become one of T20’s hottest commodities given his ability to hit boundaries from ball one late in an innings.
But the Hurricanes plans for imports took a beating on Thursday, with Hobart securing pick eight — the last selection — in the weighted lotteries for the upcoming inaugural BBL draft.
It means the Hurricanes will have last pick in the platinum (round one), platinum and gold (round two) and silver and bronze (round four), but first pick in gold and silver (round three).