Sadler reveals Northants are closing in on new bowling coach appointment

The County have been on the lookout for a replacement for Chris Liddle since he swapped life at Wantage Road for a coaching role with England Women at the end of last season.

Head coach John Sadler says he and the club have idenitified the man they want to take on the role, and that they are hoping to announce the appointment within the next few weeks.

"We will be looking to announce the new coach as soon as possible," said Sadler.

"We have identified somebody, and he is somebody we are very confident will be brilliant at the role, but is just a case of finalising details.

"The person we have identified is currently not in the country, so there are a couple of bits to sort there from a visa perspective.

"But ultimately, as soon as that gets finalised he will be on a plane and he will be with us."

The Northants players have been back working ahead of the 2024 season since back in November, and Sadler insists the fact there has not been a specialist bowling coach has not had too much of an impact.

That is mainly because the bulk of the club's seam attack are currently out of the country, playing cricket elsewhere.

Jack White is playing in New Zealand, skipper Luke Procter and Gus Miller are both in Australia, and Justin Broad is playing in Cape Town in South Africa. Leg-spiner Alex Russell is also abroad, playing in Zimbabwe

New signing George Scrimshaw has also been away playing in various tournaments, with the only two seamers stationed in Northampton for the winter being Ben Sanderson and James Sales.

Sadler says Sanderson has been coaching Sales, while the pair have also been able to lean on new batting Greg Smith, who was an all-rounder as a player and knows what to do with ball in hand!

So although not having the bowling coach in place is not ideal, Sadler is relaxed about the situation.

"Most of our seamers have gone abroad, and are playing in different places around the world, so at the minute it is not having too big an impact," he said.

"But we are trying to get the new coach over as soon as possible, and want to get him working.

"At the minute it's okay, but we do know that time is running out to get our guy in.

"Hopefully he will be in place by the back end of January, early February."