Coles appointed as first full-time head coach of Scotland Women
New Zealander Mark Coles has been appointed the first full-time head coach of Scotland Women.
Experienced coach Coles previously took Pakistan to the brink of qualifying for the 2021 Women's Cricket World Cup and a more recent role as high-performance manager of Cricket Japan was brought to a premature end by the coronavirus pandemic.
Cricket Scotland chief executive Gus Mackay said: "Mark's appointment as full-time coach of our women's national team represents a big step forward for women's cricket in this country.
"We conducted a robust recruitment process for this role, considering candidates with a wide range of cricket backgrounds from around the world.
"Mark's experience and achievements with Pakistan made him a stand-out candidate for the role.
"I would like to extend my thanks to Mark's predecessor Steve Knox for the excellent work that he did as head coach in a part-time capacity over the last five years."
The new coach's priorities will be the ICC Women's T20 World Cup qualifiers and qualification for next year's Commonwealth Games. Coles said: "I am very humbled to be given the opportunity to work with such a talented group and I am extremely excited about what we can achieve."
Meanwhile, England's Moeen
Ali has been sold to Chennai Super Kings for £700,000 in the opening round of the 2021 Indian Premier League Auction as South Africa allrounder Chris Morris fetched a record £1.6 million bid by Rajasthan Royals.
Moeen, who has departed the England squad in India following the second Test to take up a pre-determined period of rest, found himself at the centre of a battle between Kings XI Punjab and Chennai for his
services. The 33-year-old, who had spent the past two years with Royal Challengers Bangalore, fills the Super Kings' final overseas spot and will join England team-mate Sam Curran at the IPL franchise, when the competition takes place from April to June.
England batsman Dawid Malan, No 1 in the world Twenty20 rankings, is set to play for Punjab following a successful bid of almost £150,000.
Eight English players
to
including white-ball captain Eoin Morgan, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and Jos Buttler - were retained by their respective franchises ahead of the 2021 tournament.
Curran, meanwhile, will not rejoin the England Test squad as planned for the fourth Test against India.
The Surrey all-rounder was rested after last month's tour of Sri Lanka, as part of an ongoing squad rotation policy, with plans to bring him out
India in time for the final match of the series and the limited-overs leg of the trip.
But it became apparent that his journey from England to Ahmedabad would require more than one commercial flight, bringing additional concerns over possible exposure to coronavirus.
With that in mind, a decision has been made to add Curran to the white-ball group's private charter flight on February 26.
A Colorado connection has led Martin Laird to have a fellow Scot on his bag after breaking back into the world’s top 100 with his fourth PGA Tour triumph in October.
Kevin Mcalpine, a former Scottish Amateur champion and the son of former Dundee United goalkeeper Hamish, became Laird’s full-time caddie at the start of this year.
Until now, Mcalpine has worked predominantly on the LPGA Tour, where he tasted success with both Lexi Thompson and Amy Yang, but he has picked up Laird’s bag at a good time.
The 38-year-old returned to winning ways after a sevenyear drought with his victory in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas and has two WGCS and a Masters return coming up over the next few weeks.
“I did one week last season at the Sanderson Farms Championship to fill in as his caddie was about to become a dad,” said Mcalpine, who landed his Scottish title triumph at Nairn in 2006 before adding the stroke-play crown at Royal Dornoch the following year.
“We finished in the top 30 and it was the following week when he won in Las Vegas. I couldn’t work for him there as the LPGA had a major that week, so he had a mutual friend on the bag.
“About a month later, though, I got a call asking if I wanted to work with Martin full-time and we started at the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.
“I have watched him play enough to know his game and
I guess, after four years on the LPGA, he decided to give me a shot.”
Laird and Mcalpine go back a long way, having competed against each other in a Scottish Youths’ Championship at Crail before becoming team-mates at Colorado State University around 20 years ago.
“He helped me get my scholarship there and we played together for two years,” said Mcalpine. “His game improved dramatically in
that time, though he did lose the odd five bucks to me!
“He’s had some amazing wins since turning pro, including the latest one in Las Vegas, and is clearly a veteran after 12-13 years on the PGA Tour.
"I’m not going to tell him anything he doesn’t already know, but I feel like it’s a good partnership. Hopefully his good golf continues and I can bring something to add to that.
“The Masters will be exciting. I always refused to go
watch as I always wanted to play my way to the event, so I guess caddying is as close as it gets. We are heading there for a practice day after The Players’ Championship next month.”
Mcalpine, who started his caddying career at Old Collier in Florida, had a successful spell with Thompson before also helping Yang taste success during a two-year stint.
He is engaged to Anna Nordqvist, the Swede who has recorded eight LPGA wins and played in six Solheim Cups, but the Scots says that is unlikely to become an oncourse partnership as well.
“I think Anna and I know it isn’tagreatideatohaveaworking relationship,” said Mcalpine. “Not that it wouldn’t work, more that our personal relationship is more important and takes priority. If she was stuck and I wasn’t working, I would be more than happy to ‘fill in’.”