Darren Lehmann’s contract extended as Australia coach

Cricket Australia on Monday said it has extended the contract of head coach Darren Lehmann until October 2019 to keep him in place during the next Ashes series and World Cup.

Lehmann’s contract was due to expire in June next year. CA said it has been extended to cover the 2017-18 Ashes series in Australia and the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup in England and Wales.

Since Lehmann’s appointment in 2013 he has taken Australia’s Test and one-day teams to the top world ranking, won a home Ashes series 5-0, beat South Africa in a Test series away from home and won last year’s ICC Cricket World Cup.

“2019 is such a big year for Australian cricket and we wanted certainty and stability for the playing group, with both the coach and assistant coach contracted, as we build towards the Ashes series and the 2019 World Cup,” CA’s executive general manager Pat Howard said in a statement.

“Darren has had great success in the role and he and the national selection panel deserve a huge amount of credit for taking a relatively young side to number one in the world in two of the three formats. The commitment he shows to the role goes far broader than that of the Australian men’s team and extends into the global support of the game through his work on the ICC Cricket Committee,” he added. 

Lehmann said he was looking forward to the challenges. “I am incredibly grateful for the support and faith the Cricket Australia Board and the players have put in me,” he said. “I absolutely love doing this job and as far as I am concerned it is the best job in the world. There is still a lot I would like to achieve in the time I have left and we have a lot of hard work ahead of us, especially with an upcoming Test series in India and a home Ashes series.”