McDermott appointed Australia Test bowling coach

Melbourne, Oct 17 (IANS) Former pacer Craig McDermott has been appointed the Test bowling coach of Australia while Ali de Winter has been named as the limited overs bowling coach, Cricket Australia (CA) announced Thursday.

McDermott was part of the Australian team which won the 1987 World Cup in India and has also played in 71 Tests from 1984-96.

"I'm very happy to be in a position to join the Australian coaching set up again and I look forward to working closely with (Coach) Darren Lehmann, Michael Clarke and the team this summer. There is obviously a huge focus on regaining the Ashes this summer and I'll work as hard as possible to prepare our bowlers for the challenge ahead," said McDermott, who clinched 291 Test wickets in his career.

On the other hand, former fast bowler de Winter played 21 First Class and 10 List A games for Tasmania from 1986-93.

"We have the two most important limited overs tournaments coming up with the 2014 World T20 in Bangladesh and the 2015 World Cup in Australia so I'm very much looking forward to working with the fast bowlers as we build-up to these events," said the 45-year-old de Winter, who clinched 13 wickets in his List A career.

"We have some work to do between now and each of the world events and I'm looking forward to focussing on contributing to returning Australia to the No.1 ranking in T20 and ODI cricket."

Commenting on the changes, CA general manager team performance Pat Howard said: “We feel that with the amount of touring now it is extremely difficult for every member of the support staff to be on every tour. As we’ve seen in more recent times, we’ve swapped our support staff at particular moments to ensure everyone is fresh and energised and the feedback on that has been very positive.”