EUbank EyEs bElting night oUt
ENGLAND’S bid for World Cup glory has been rocked by the sudden departure of coach Paul Farbrace.
Farbrace, assistant coach to Peter Moores and then Trevor Bayliss, has jumped ship to join Warwickshire as their director of sport – a role vacated by Ashley Giles when he took a similar role with England.
He will quit the team at the end of the current tour of the Windies, admitting he had already decided to go in September rather than apply for Bayliss’ job because he “didn’t have the energy” to stay on the international treadmill.
“It’s a huge wrench,” said Farbrace, 51, who has helped England’s ODI side move to No.1 in the world.
“I found it hard telling one or two people yesterday and I couldn’t tell too many this morning. I had to send a WhatsApp around the players and management groups.
“Even now it’s tough because
I ’ ve had the opportunity to do something I never dreamed I would come close to doing.
“I wasn’t good enough to play international cricket, I only played a little bit of county cricket.
“There is never a perfect time to leave and this is not CHRIS EUBANK JUNIOR will proudly sport the IBO world supermiddleweight belt on a night out in London if he beats James DeGale on Saturday – just like he did last time.
Eubank hit the tiles wearing the belt after beating Renold Quinlan to win it for the first time in 2017.
Mocking him, DeGale said: “It is not recognised as one of the four major world titles. Chris was very something I’ve done lightly. From a selfish point of view the ideal time would have been after the Ashes, but Gilo and I hope this causes as little disruption as possible.
“Of course every coach wants to coach their national team, but I don’t think I’ve got the energy to commit to another four years of international cricket.
“I need to do something different. I need to freshen up. International cricket is not something you can do half- heartedly or not be committed to every single day.”
Farbrace’s departure could see an existing member of the deluded when it came to carrying that belt around and calling himself a world champion.
“I once saw him walking around a central London nightclub with it wrapped round himself, he was parading it around like he was the super-middleweight champion of the world, he is mad.”
But Eubank replied: “He didn’t bump into me, he would have seen it on social media. I didn’t see him out that night. But 100 per cent I would do it again. You fight for a belt, you backroom staff, such as Paul Collingwood, step up into the void between now and the World Cup.
Collingwood (left) has signed on to stay involved with England through to the end of the World Cup. He is red hot favourite to be the main white-ball coach under a new head coach when Bayliss moves on.
Bowling coach Chris Silverwood is tipped to fulfil the same role in the Test side after the Ashes, unless he makes a successful bid for the top job.
Farbrace said: “There’s enough knowledge, there’s enough experience in the set-up.
“Colly’s been around World Cups himself – and whenever he’s been involved he’s been absolutely fantastic.” Farbrace win, why not take it out with you on a night out? Everyone has just watched you fight, they want to see it, want to take pictures and hold it.
“That’s what being a people’s fighter is, a people’s champion.
“It’s a great belt, there have been many world champions and many of the world’s best fighters have e held that belt. Lennox Lewis, Naseem Hamed, Wladimir
Klitschko, Roy Jones. It’s an honour and privilege to fight for the belt.” has certainly played his part along the journey as the man who, along with Eoin Morgan, picked England’s ODI side up from their lowest ebb following the disastrous 2015 World Cup campaign.
As interim boss he oversaw the game against New Zealand that changed it all, when England posted a then record 408 and set the template for the next four years.
Warwickshire are getting a man who has coached at every level from schoolboy at Hampton Schoo l to international where he won the 2014 World T20 as Sri Lanka head coach.
“I will miss being in a tracksuit,” he said. “But I think this is a role for me.”