Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Yorkshire head coach Rich Pyrah is preparing to take charge of the Melbourne Stars.
Rich Pyrah is less than a week away from taking charge of his first match as the new coach of the Melbourne Stars, and he can’t wait to get started.
“Apart from Yorkshire being one of the biggest jobs in the world, I think being head coach of the Melbourne Stars in the Women’s Big Bash is right up there,” he said.
“I get to work with Meg Lanning, Annabelle Sutherland, Kim Garth, and we’ve got some exciting young English overseas coming over as well.
“It’s really exciting.”
Yorkshire’s head coach was appointed as the Stars’ head coach in late August and has travelled Down Under ahead of a busy couple of months.
The main event – the Big Bash – doesn’t start until October 29 and runs through to December 5. But a warm-up event called the Spring Challenge gets underway in Sydney on Monday and runs through until October 21. All of the teams are involved, including the ACT Meteors.
“It’s going to be a completely different team that I’m going to be managing compared to a younger one at Yorkshire,” continued Pyrah.
Picture by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images. Annabel Sutherland is captain of the Melbourne Stars. She has already worked with Rich Pyrah in this summer’s Hundred with Sunrisers Leeds.
“It gives me another experience of coaching.
“There are also a lot of our girls in Australia this winter so I can keep an eye on them as well and help them where I can. As I say, it’s exciting times.”
Rolling off the names of players spending time playing cricket abroad this winter, the majority of whom are playing club cricket, Pyrah continued: “In Melbourne, we’ve got Claudie Cooper, Maddie Ward when fully fit – which will hopefully be end of November, and Jess Woolston.
“In Adelaide, Alice Clarke, Ami Campbell’s going to Sydney and Erin Thomas to Brisbane. In the New Year, Rachel Slater is going to New Zealand and Hannah Rainey to Perth.
“On top of that, Ami and Sterre Kalis have just been playing in the Canada Super60 event. Sterre will also be playing for the Netherlands.
“Sarah Glenn has signed for Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash and for Northern Districts in the Super Smash in New Zealand. Lauren Winfield-Hill is also playing for Queensland.”
In an interview reviewing the season, Yorkshire captain Winfield-Hill was talking about Pyrah and his Stars’ role and joked: “I hope he doesn’t do too good a job because we never want to lose him.”
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Ami Campbell is playing club cricket in Sydney this winter.
Speaking to Pyrah, though, there’s no danger of that. He’s in this at Headingley for the long-term.
“I absolutely love it,” he said of his head coach’s job at Yorkshire. “It’s the most rewarding job I’ve ever had.
“I started with the Yorkshire Diamonds in 2016 and loved that experience. I spent a lot of time in the men’s game, which was great.
“I honestly think the growth in the women’s game is so exciting.
“It’s growing quickly.
“Giving these young girls opportunities now, seeing them develop and putting in good performances, it gives me more satisfaction than I’ve ever had in coaching.
“I’m genuinely really excited for the future.
Picture by Josh Chadwick/Getty Images. Melbourne Stars’ batter Meg Lanning, who went up against Rich Pyrah this summer whilst playing Blast cricket for Lancashire, will be in the same colours over the next few months.
“Coming in at a stage where the club have had a reset and started building a team from nowhere, to be able to shape that and put things in place is one of the best jobs in the country.
“We know it’s going to take time, but I have full confidence that we’ll get there in a couple of years.
“When we get up to challenging towards the top end, that will be such a rewarding feeling.
“My focus is always going to be Yorkshire.
“These opportunities that are coming, like going in The Hundred (as an assistant) with the Sunrisers, it’s taking nothing away from my Yorkshire job. I’m doing that when we don’t play through The Hundred.
“The Big Bash is in October, November when our girls are having downtime and just starting some physical blocks. I won’t be missing any cricket.
“There are four big T20 leagues in the world, aren’t there. There’s the Blast, The Hundred, the WPL in India and the Big Bash. I’m working in three of them now, which is great.”
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Lauren Winfield-Hill has heaped praise on Rich Pyrah.
Pyrah will be aiming to deliver a maiden WBBL title for the Stars, who have recruited a trio of English overseas players in Charlie Dean, Dani Gibson and Amy Jones.
There will be plenty of supporters and colleagues and Yorkshire watching on from afar and willing Pyrah to do well.
Winfield-Hill said: “It’s a really cool opportunity for him.
“I love Rich. I just really connect with him.
“He’s pretty cruisy, you know. There are no magic tricks.
“Personally, he knows my batting so well.
“I went to him one of the first times I got dropped by England, and I was in a bit of a crisis of confidence.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Rich Pyrah will be in opposition to Jess Jonassen – and Sarah Glenn as well – during the forthcoming Big Bash. Jonassen and Glenn are playing for Brisbane Heat.
“It was when he was just phasing out of the game, at the back end of his playing career, and was going into coaching. I like working with him as a head coach, but he’s also a really good sounding board with my batting.
“He’s just so calm and level-headed and a really good bloke.”
And Yorkshire’s general manager of cricket Gavin Hamilton added his praise for 43-year-old Pyrah, who has been in his current role for two years now and has a Metro Bank One-Day Cup Tier 2 trophy on his CV.
“I was involved with Rich throughout the process (Melbourne Stars), and he kept me in the loop,” said Hamilton. “There would have been a lot of good candidates going for that role.
“He’s got a good, solid platform here at Yorkshire, and he’s done an unbelievable job over the last two years. You can see the amount of work him and his support staff do.
“To be in and around franchise cricket is where everybody wants to be at the moment.
“It’s good for him, and it’s going to be good for us, the learnings he’s going to have, the connections he’s going to have with other overseas players and other domestic players.”
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. General manager of cricket Gavin Hamilton believes Rich Pyrah’s coaching role with the Melbourne Stars will benefit Yorkshire.
And Hamilton added: “He’s a Yorkshire lad through and through, and the club means a hell of a lot to him.
“It shows in the way he coaches.
“Everything around the club is based around how he behaves around the girls and what his expectations are of them.
“He encompasses Yorkshire himself, and he should be very proud of himself for how far he’s come.”
