Cricket Australia extends coach Darren Lehmann 's contract by two years

Darren Lehmann will remain in charge of the Australian Cricket Team for a further two years after Cricket Australia extended his contract which was due to end in June next year. Lehmann will now be the coach till the Ashes tour in 2019.

The number one ranked team lost the first match of their three-game series against number seven-ranked Sri Lanka. However, Lehmann does not believe that the success or otherwise of his tenure as Australia’s cricket coach will be judged on the results he achieves on the subcontinent.

The loss to Sri Lanka was Australia’s seventh consecutive Test loss in Asian conditions, but just the third (including the two-nil series loss to Pakistan in the UAE in 2014) since Lehmann took over the coaching mantle from Mickey Arthur in 2013 before the Ashes campaign in the UK.

But in the wake of his side’s shock 106-run loss to an inexperienced and confidence-sapped Sri Lanka in Kandy last Saturday, Lehmann identified overturning a decade of poor performances in sub-continental conditions as one of his priorities for the next three years.

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“I suppose the big one on everyone’s lips is the sub-continent – we certainly have to improve there,” Lehmann said today when asked to outline the challenges that await between now and the end of his contract which will include a World Cup immediately followed by an Ashes campaign in the UK in 2019.

“(But) I think you’re judged on results most of the time all around the world, not just on the subcontinent.

“The (Cricket Australia) Board have actually seen that we are doing okay, as such, barring Saturday’s result in the Test (at Pallekele Stadium near Kandy).

“I’m looking forward to the next few years in charge and hopefully getting some wins in the sub-continent, first and foremost on the agenda, but also developing the side as we are.

“We have a different coaching group now coming in and the players are refreshed and I am looking forward to the challenge.”

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The disastrous 2013 Ashes tour saw Lehmann took replace Arthur. But within a year of taking the reins, Lehmann quickly regaines their dominant status with a drubbing of England followed by a gritty series win over the then top-ranked Test team South Africa on the home soil. The Aussies then claimed the World Cup in 2015 before surrendering the Ashes in the UK last year.

The stinging loss triggered a mass retirement of senior players who had formed the core of the Test team including skipper Michael Clarke, Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, Brad Haddin, Ryan Harris and Chris Rogers.

But, Lehmann has since then worked with his new skipper Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner to not only rebuild the core of the Australia team but carry them to the top of the rankings in two of the game’s three international formats.

Cricket Australia’s Executive General Manager Team Performance, Pat Howard, said the decision to extend Lehmann’s tenure until after the double-header of marquee events in the UK in 2019 was in part to provide certainty and continuity leading up to that unique World Cup-Ashes quinella.

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But he also highlighted the additional work that the former Test and ODI batsman undertakes in promoting the game throughout Australia, his commitment to mentoring other coaches at international and state level and his contribution as a member of the ICC’s influential Cricket Committee.

The Committee, which also includes former Test greats Anil Kumble (chair, and newly appointed India coach), Mahela Jayawardene, Andrew Strauss and Rahul Dravid, has the authority to recommend to the ICC Board changes to the game’s rules and playing conditions.

“2019 is such a big year for Australian cricket and we wanted certainty and stability for the playing group with both the coach and assistant coach contracted as we build towards the Ashes series and the 2019 World Cup,” Howard said in confirming Lehmann’s contract extension.

“Darren has had great success in the role and he and the National Selection Panel deserve a huge amount of credit for taking a relatively young side to number one in the world in two of the three formats.

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“What often goes unseen is how big a supporter Darren has been of the wider cricket system in Australia, and that is crucial to the long term sustainability of Australian cricket.

“The commitment he shows to the role goes far broader that of the Australian men’s team and extends into the global support of the game through his work on the ICC Cricket Committee.”