Leah Poulton, Cricket Australia’s women’s high-performance coach and former Australian cricketer has been declared as the new head coach for Melbourne Stars going into this year’s Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL).
Poulton takes over from David Hemp who has been with the Stars since the inception of the WBBL in 2015.
Poulton has a tough job in hand as the Melbourne Stars have failed to reach the semi-finals even once in the five editions played so far. In the last season, the Stars ended up on the last position (8th).
“I’m really excited to join the Melbourne Stars and would like to thank the club for giving me the opportunity of taking on the head coach role.
“There is fantastic potential both in the current squad and what we can achieve in the future. The club has a reputation for a fantastic family culture and that’s something I’m really looking forward to being part of,” Poulton said.
Leah will join hands with Stars skipper Elyse Villani as the duo will look to work on the “new chapter of its WBBL journey”, as described by Nick Cummins, Melbourne Stars General Manager
“I look forward to working with our leadership group and management over the next few months to build our list and am keen to see where we can take this team in WBBL 06,” Leah averred.
Before jumping into the coaching space, Leah Poulton featured in 48 ODIs, 40 T20s, 2 Tests for Australia and over 100 matches for New South Wales. She has won two T20 World Cups as well.
Poulton, 36, retired in 2015, and since then has strived hard to establish herself as a leading personality in the coaching world. She currently looks after Australia’s female National Performance Squad, a program that promotes the development of promising young cricketers. She is the coach of Australia ‘A’ women’s squad, in addition to Australia’s U-19 and U-15 female squads.
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