Ian Salisbury and James Kirtley to split Sussex head coach role

Jason Gillespie's replacement has been appointed from within, with two of his former backroom staff combining across formats next season

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Ian Salisbury and James Kirtley will combine to fill the vacant position as Sussex's head coach for the 2021 campaign.

While spin bowling lead Salisbury will take charge in the County Championship and One-Day Cup, Kirtley will take over for the T20 Blast.

The appointment comes after the departure of Jason Gillespie, who has returned home to coach South Australia after three years at Hove.

Salisbury, who made 280 appearances across all formats for the club, returned to Sussex earlier in the year after a spell leading England's disability side.

"I am immensely proud, honoured and humbled to be given this opportunity at the club where my professional cricketing journey started in 1989," said Salisbury.

"The chance to work in unison with James is one I’m hugely excited about. Our shared vision and strategy is to bring sustained success to Sussex. We have the talent within the squad and the potential talent coming through from the most impressive academy in the country to achieve this."

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Kirtley spent 15 years on the south coast winning multiple honours including the Twenty20 Cup in 2009. He moved into Gillespie's backroom team 12 months ago.

He added: "It will be exciting to help find the next level with the T20 side and with the help of the coaching staff, senior players and analysts I am confident we will be successful in discovering the small margins and making the changes necessary to take us further in the competition.

"It will be great to continue working with Ian Salisbury in the other competitions. We have worked in tandem for a number of teams over the course of the last five years and obviously back to our playing days at Sussex. 

"We have a vision for the club and I hope we can deliver this through a very thought-out strategic approach over the course of time."

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