Worcestershire return for 'wise and smart' Gidman - The Worcester Observer

Worcestershire return for 'wise and smart' Gidman

Worcester Editorial 16th Mar, 2018   0

ALEX GIDMAN is returning to Worcestershire as second XI coach as the final piece of the jigsaw in the restructured coaching set-up at Blackfinch New Road.

Gidman will slot into the role after Matt Mason’s departure – following a brief spell in the post – and the promotion of Kevin Sharp to head coach.

It follows the appointment in January of Alan Richardson as head bowling coach.

Gidman joined Worcestershire from Gloucestershire – where he skippered the side for four years – for the 2015 season on a two-year contract but was forced to retire with a finger injury the following winter.




He has since become an elite performance, leadership and cricket coach.

“I’m very happy and really excited and looking forward to starting with the group and hopefully assisting them in achieving their team and personal goals,” said Gidman, who worked as a coach with the MCC Young Cricketers last summer.


“Getting back into the professional game was always something I’d have liked to have done.

“Opportunities don’t come around very often and I didn’t want to rely on that happening and I’ve put in a lot of work and learnt a lot in order to try and make myself a better coach.

“I’ve learn a lot away from cricket which I think has been very helpful and developed me as a person and a coach.

“So once this opportunity came up, I gave it a go and felt I was in a good position to offer something to the group and I’m grateful to have been given the opportunity.”

High Wycombe-born Gidman scored 11,622 first class runs at an average of 36.31 with 24 hundreds plus 4,473 List A runs in addition to 103 wickets.

He passed 1,000 first class runs in a season six times and was part of the successful Gloucestershire one-day side of the early to mid-2000s.

Gidman was appointment England ‘A’ (now Lions) captain for the 2003/04 tour of India and Malaysia.

He was forced to withdraw with a hand injury but did tour Sri Lanka 12 months later and was in the preliminary England squad for the 2004 Champions Trophy.

Gidman replaced Jon Lewis as Gloucestershire captain in 2009 and remained in the role until 2012.

Speaking of Gidman’s appointment, head coach Sharp said: “He is a wise man, he is a smart man, he has got captaincy experience, he is an outside of the box thinker, he sometimes thinks of things others wouldn’t think if and I’ve always enjoyed that in Alex.

“He will complement our coaching team and bring a dynamic to it, a way of thinking, that will challenge us. That is just brilliant.

“The lads will be delighted with his appointment. It will motivate the group enormously.”

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