Cricket Australia defends fielding coach Young’s part-time appointment

SYDNEY - Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young has defended the use of fielding coach Mike Young, saying that he is employed on a part-time basis.

The board has been criticized for Young’s annual consultancy agreement.

The agreement included the Ashes opener in Brisbane, but his services were not required in the Adelaide Test, which Australia lost by an innings and 71 runs.

Young flies to Perth today to re-join the Australian camp for the third Test at the WACA, but will not be used for the Boxing Day and New Year’s Tests.

Ricky Ponting’s side had been uncharacteristically sloppy at the Adelaide Oval, with Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, Xavier Doherty and Brad Haddin all grassing chances to ease the pressure on England.

“Mike is one of the specialists that comes in from time to time, but he doesn’t travel full-time with the team. He is normally most focused with the team around one-day cricket and short form cricket and he is part of our planning for the ICC World Cup in 2011. But he is not part of the normal Test cricket scene with our side.,” News.com.au quoted Young, as saying.

“We do have a large specialist professional support team which is appropriate for the Ashes campaign that we’ve got. It’s the basis on which we’ve employed Mike from the start. Some people are there full-time like Tim Nielsen (coach), but others come in and out of the team,” he added.

Earlier, former Australia batsman Darren Lehmann had said that Cricket Australia must appoint Young on full-time basis or risk losing the Ashes.

“We need to have Mike there for every Test. He’s the best fielding coach we could have. He was at every Ashes Test last time,” Lehmann had said.

“Who cares about the cost? If we lose the Ashes, it’s not a great result for us. I can’t understand it. We’ve got a fielding coach and we’re not using him full-time in a series like the Ashes,” he added. (ANI)