Scotland appoint Bradburn as head coach

Grant Bradburn, the former New Zealand international, has been named as Scotland's new head coach. His first major job will be to prepare them for next year's World Cup, which Scotland qualified for under the temporary coaching team of Paul Collingwood and Craig Wright, who remains as Bradburn's assistant.

Scotland take on England in an ODI in Aberdeen in less than two weeks' time, although Bradburn will not assume control until July 1. His appointment brings some stability to the Scotland set-up, after Peter Steindl stepped down following the team's failure at the World T20 Qualifier last year. Wright's new role will also see him take charge of the Elite Player Development Programme, with fielding coach and analyst Toby Bailey and strength and conditioning coach Simon Smith completing the set-up.

Bradburn's appointment is until the end of 2017 and takes in the next Intercontinental Cup, which will give one Associate nation a shot at playing Test cricket, as well as the 2016 World T20 in India. His most recent role was as head coach of New Zealand A and the Under-19 side and before that he spent five successful years with Northern Districts.

"It is an honour to be named as coach of Scotland," Bradburn said. "This is a fantastic opportunity to work with players and staff at Cricket Scotland and I am thrilled at the prospect of working with a nation trying so hard to build on recent success.

"As a coach, this presents a great opportunity to add value, by driving continual improvement, building depth with healthy competition for Scottish representation. The Scotland team have performed well by qualifying for the 2015 World Cup, which will be played in New Zealand and Australia at venues that I am very familiar with. With my appointment through to the end of 2017, I will focus sharply on continuing Scotland's progress towards being a leading force in world cricket. I am also motivated to contribute to Scotland Cricket's overall performance systems, aligning with each region to build clear player pathways and assisting more Scottish players to step up onto the world stage.

"Cricket Scotland has a high-quality team of people supporting the players, with excellent systems in place. With my experience of orchestrating successful high performance environments, I look forward to working with the players and staff at Cricket Scotland and assisting them to continue to grow and perform."

Bradburn, an offspinner, played seven Tests and 11 ODIs for New Zealand between 1990 and 2001. He will be introduced to Scotland's players and support staff in May and attend the England ODI, for which Wright will coach the side.

As part of its restructuring, Cricket Scotland has also increased Andy Tennant's responsibilities from being Head of Performance to become the Director of Cricket, in charge of all strategic and operational cricketing matters. Bradburn will report directly to Tennant.

"We are delighted that we have been able to attract a coach of Grant's ability and pedigree to head up our national team programme," Tennant said. "During the recruitment process, Grant was able to show the vision, foresight and attributes we were looking for to drive our Scotland national team through the World Cup and onwards to the next Intercontinental Cup and WCL cycles. He has an exceptional track record of producing international cricketers and is used to working in similar environments to the one he will find in Scotland.

"With Craig, Toby and Simon as his coaching team, as well as the ability to bring in other specialist assistance as required, we believe we have all the building blocks in place to build on the recent success in New Zealand. I very much look forward to working with Grant when he arrives.''

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