By Gareth James
Glamorgan director of cricket Mark Wallace has defended the county’s decision to spilt their coaching duties next season – leaving Matthew Maynard not involved in the one-day game.
Wallace insists Glamorgan need to have a re-think of their strategy, which involves a new coach to head up their T20 Blast and One-Day Cup challenges.
The county have advertised for a limited-overs head coach in a bid to address their abject recent record in the T20 Blast, with Maynard’s new two-year contract limited to red-ball cricket.
Wallace, a former playing teammate of Maynard, said: “It’s a very long season with a lot of cricket and we believe that splitting the role will allow for the coaches to remain fresh and focus on the differing requirements of the various formats of the game.
“Matt has done an excellent job in red-ball cricket where we’ve seen a big improvement in our performances over the last couple of years and it’s good that we can retain his experience and expertise to take us forward in that format.”
Maynard has coached Glamorgan across formats since 2019 and has successfully rebuilt their red-ball team, as evidenced by them narrowly missing out on promotion to Division One of the County Championship this season.
But they have won only 13 out of 43 completed Blast games across the last four seasons – the fewest of any county – and have finished bottom of the South Group twice.
They were Royal London Cup winners in 2021 but that title came under assistant coach David Harrison while Maynard was working with Welsh Fire in the Hundred.
The split-coaching model has been trialled by a handful of counties before, including Derbyshire, Middlesex and Sussex, while many teams have promoted from within for the last two seasons of the Royal London Cup when coaches have been on Hundred duty.
Matt Maynard has penned a 2⃣-year deal to remain as red-ball head coach
The Club can confirm that we will split coaching duties as we search for a limited-overs head coach
Read more #GoGlam
— Glamorgan Cricket (@GlamCricket) November 2, 2022
Maynard, said: “I’m delighted to be able to carry on the work we’ve put in over the last three years in the four-day game.
“Although I enjoy coaching the white-ball sides, I fully respect the decision made by the club to split the head coach duties, and as always will do my best for Glamorgan Cricket.
“Taking charge of just the red-ball team will allow me to concentrate my efforts and hopefully we can go one better next year and secure promotion to Division One. We have a talented squad who are a pleasure to work with and I can’t wait to get started with them again over the winter.
“The dynamic with a new head coach will be something different and hopefully we get the right character in to fit in with the culture and environment we’ve created over the past few years, but it’s very exciting and I’m looking forward to discussing strategy and tactics, and working with them so we can get the best results over all three formats for the club.”