Sussex name James Kirtley as full-time pace bowling coach

Kirtley, who took 516 County Championship wickets for the county between 1995 and 2009, has already worked alongside Sussex's coaches for two years

Sussex have announced the appointment of club veteran James Kirtley as their new permanent pace bowling coach.

The seamer, 44, played his entire county career with the club, making 461 first-team appearances and earning 16 England caps across all three formats before retiring in 2010.

Kirtley will be a familiar face to the Sharks squad, having worked at the club as a bowling consultant for the past two seasons. He fills the role vacated in April by Jon Lewis, who now heads up the ECB's under-19 programme on a full-time basis.

"I am really looking forward to working full time with the bowlers at Sussex," Kirtley said.

"I am proud to have helped the bowlers with their achievements and progress over the last two years albeit in a more behind the scenes part-time role. I was lucky Jon Lewis had left the club with the bowlers in such a good place.

"More recently it was great to see the quality of our bowlers being recognised with a large part of our pace attack being drafted in The Hundred and Ollie Robinson making it into the England Lions set-up.

"Whilst improving the performances of our bowlers already in the professional squad is an important part of my role, I am particularly keen to ensure we keep up the good work we've been doing in recent years in making sure the next generation of Sussex bowlers are well-prepared when their time comes to step up to the first-team. I hope we will see a number of these bowlers performing at this level soon."

^{Kirtley won six titles in his Sussex playing career, including County Championships in 2003, 2006 and 2007}

After his retirement from the professional game, Eastbourne-born Kirtley went on to serve as managing director of kit manufacturer MKK Sports. He has since gone on to work as a coach with a number of sides, including Bede's School, Namibia and England Women, alongside former county teammate and coach Mark Robinson.

Kirtley is likely to have a new-look pace attack in 2020 after the ECB awarded Jofra Archer a central contract and both Reece Topley and Abidine Sakande turned down new contract offers from the club.

Topley has since joined neighbours Surrey on a two-year white-ball contract, and Sussex announced the signature of 37-year-old Kent seamer Mitch Claydon in September.

Head coach Jason Gillespie added: "We've really enjoyed working with James over the past two years, so to have him join our coaching team full time is brilliant.

"His technical knowledge of fast bowling is superb, he is full of ideas and he has a great rapport with the players. He’s already been a great help to many of our guys during his time with us and it's fantastic for Sussex that he can continue that work.

"Personally, I'm really looking forward to learning as much as I can from James. We’re all going to benefit enormously from having him with us full time."

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