Sarah Taylor, the former England women’s cricketer has joined Sussex’s coaching panel for their upcoming season.Taylor, widely regarded as among the best wicketkeepers of all time, retired at the age of 30, in 2019, owing to long-term struggles with her anxiety issues.
Taylor played 226 international matches across the formats between 2006-2019 and claimed 232 wicketkeeping dismissals in women’s cricket. She backed up her feats behind the stumps with over 7,000 international runs.
Commenting on her new role, Taylor told the county’s official website:
“I’m really pleased about working with the club’s wicketkeepers.
“From Ben Brown and Phil Salt in the professional squad and down through the pathway, we have a really talented group of keepers at Sussex who I am looking forward to working with immensely.
“I want to share my experience and expertise to help them get the most out of their game. I’m a big believer in keeping things simple and perfecting the basics so that players can enjoy and express themselves with the gloves.”
Ashley Wright will also join the Sussex coaching staff. Ashley will assist Sussex’s lead batting coach, Jason Swift. The former Leicestershire player is a Level 4 coach, who specialises in human movement and biomechanics. He has previously worked with Surrey and Bangladesh Premier League side, Rajshahi Kings, and was the national head coach of Guernsey for four years.
“Sussex Cricket is delighted to announce the addition of Sarah Taylor and Ashley Wright to its coaching staff for the forthcoming season,” Sussex Cricket said in a statement.
Commenting on the addition of Sarah and Ashley to the coaching team, Ian Salisbury, Sussex’s joint men’s head coach, said:
“As with everything we do, the decision to add Sarah and Ash to our coaching staff is based on our strategic aim to produce homegrown or ‘Sussex-fied’ players who will ensure the club is competing in all formats and providing as many players for England as possible in the futurefuture”, Salisbury added.
“They both bring a huge amount of cricketing knowledge, skill and experience, as well as a fantastic work ethic, to the entirety of our player pathway. Equally as important, Sarah and Ash both fit our mantra of coaching the whole person, not just the cricketer very well.”