John Sadler returns to where it all started after being appointed as Yorkshire’s new batting coach, joining Anthony McGrath’s backroom staff at Headingley.
Sadler, Dewsbury-born, came through the Yorkshire system and made his senior debut for the Yorkshire Cricket Board in a 1999 NatWest Trophy win over Gloucestershire Cricket Board. Three years later, the left-hander played a friendly for Yorkshire against the touring West Indians at Headingley.
McGrath was in that White Rose team, while Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo were in opposition for the tourists.
Stylish Sadler, a former England Under 19, went on to make more than 200 county appearances for Leicestershire and then Derbyshire across all formats, topping the 6,000-run mark.
Picture by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images. John Sadler during his playing days at Leicestershire.
Sadler, now aged 42, scored four career centuries, including a first-class best of 145 before retirement in 2010, though he did play Minor Counties cricket for Suffolk in 2011.
He played England Under 19s cricket alongside the likes of Ian Bell, Jimmy Anderson in the early 2000s.
Sadler joins Yorkshire having been Northamptonshire’s head coach since 2021 until the latter stages of last season. It was also a role he previously held at Derbyshire, while he has also been part of Leicestershire’s coaching staff since hanging up his bat.
