Big names touted for roles to help resurrect BBL’s Melbourne Stars, Renegades after poor seasons

Cricket Victoria has created two high-powered positions to help lift its underperforming BBL and WBBL teams, with a pair of former Australian internationals linked to the roles.

Cricket Victoria has created two high-powered positions to help lift its underperforming BBL and WBBL teams.

Performance managers are set to be appointed at Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegades.

Former Victorian stars Cameron White and Dan Christian are being linked with the new roles, which CV says will be “pivotal for the future success of Victorian T20 cricket’’.

The managers will oversee T20 talent identification in the state, working closely with CV general manager of cricket performance Graham Manou and heads of cricket David Hussey (male) and Sharelle McMahon (female).

The positions will link the BBL and WBBL teams with CV’s state talent development and elite programs, to have “greater depth of talent feeding into the W/BBL teams’’.

The performance managers will also have a say in the recruiting and contracting of players, and serve as assistant coaches in the Big Bash and for the CV-aligned US franchise, the San Francisco Unicorns.

It is a response to another disappointing season for the Stars and Renegades. The ‘Gades finished second-bottom in the BBL and last in the WBBL, while the Stars missed the finals in both tournaments.

Men’s Stars skipper Glenn Maxwell stood down after the campaign. The male Stars have yet to win a BBL crown, although they have reached three finals.

Aaron Finch, Cameron White and Dan Christian of the 2019-19 Melbourne Renegades celebrate winning a Big Bash League final over the Stars at Marvel Stadium. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Manou told CODE Sports: “On the back of the WBBL and BBL seasons, one of the things we’ve been talking about is having a stronger connection to high performance and from a strategic point of view, how we’re actually developing three-format cricketers along the way.

“Bringing the roles into our department will allow us to really integrate across all of our programs what’s required from a development point of view. Equally, for those players who are contracted, to get really specific about their development for the format.

“Given we’ve got two teams, how to do we produce more Victorian cricketers that are capable of being contracted?

“One of the challenges that both NSW and Victoria face is that we don’t have that continuity of resource around the two Big Bash programs. So hopefully over time, this will allow us to develop our own talent more effectively, then give us that ability to provide more opportunities around all of the formats but specifically in this regard T20.’’

Melbourne Stars captain Glenn Maxwell stood down after the team’s failed campaign last season. Picture: Sarah Reed/Getty Images

Manou said the roles would have three components: coaching across the BBL and WBBL seasons, and in Victoria’s winter programs; list management; and talent ID.

He said the identification of players could have a “more strategic, longer-term approach to how we’re structuring the Big Bash teams’’.

Manou said the performances of the Stars and ‘Gades this season “sped the conversation up a little bit’’.

“History shows across the male and female programs it’s been rare that both teams have done well in the same year.

“Obviously the men had the year when the Stars and Renegades played off in the final. But the performances since both tournaments have been in play … we’ve probably underperformed for Victorian standards.

“It’s probably a culmination of issues, performance and perhaps with myself coming in and seeing things with fresh eyes and looking at how we could approach things differently. The other piece to it is just where the game’s going. If we want to be leaders in how we’re developing our players, then we’ve got to look at how we’re currently operating and where we can improve.’’

White, an assistant coach at the Sydney Sixers, was interviewed for the Melbourne Stars coaching position last year. Former England coach Peter Moores landed the role.

Cricket Victoria is also searching for a women’s head coach to replace Jarrad Loughman, who left last November.

Originally published as Big names touted for roles to help resurrect BBL’s Melbourne Stars, Renegades after poor seasons