Jason Gillespie, Rich Pyrah, Ottis Gibson and Kabir Ali. Yorkshire’s bowlers have been able to tap into some impressive knowledge in recent years. Now they can add ex-Australia white ball international Mick Lewis to that list.
Lewis has signed a three-year contract as the new men’s bowling coach and has followed Anthony McGrath from Essex to Headingley.
The 50-year-old will link up with the county ahead of the new season.
Lewis spent three seasons with Essex as their bowling coach having held a similar role with Victoria, also working in the Big Bash League within his home state. He first worked with the Melbourne Stars before heading down the Yarra River to their cross-town rivals Melbourne Renegades.
Lewis was a late bloomer as a cricketer, not making a junior state appearance and only debuting in senior state cricket as a 25-year-old. He made his ODI debut for Australia aged 31, in late 2005, and played nine times in all.
Picture by Alex Davidson/Getty Images. Mick Lewis lines up alongside Anthony McGrath in an Essex pre-season photo shoot last summer. The pair will do the same in Yorkshire kit this coming April.
Nicknamed Billy, he was a skiddy and aggressive fast bowler who took 435 wickets across all formats during a senior career which saw him win the Sheffield Shield with Victoria in 2003/2004. Former Yorkshire overseas players Matthew Elliott and Ian Harvey were in that same team.
Lewis was also a three-time Sheffield Shield winner with Victoria as a bowling coach.
Back to his playing career, he was a two-time T20 winner with Victoria Bushrangers in 2006 and again in 2007, experience which will no doubt be invaluable in helping Yorkshire break their duck in that particular format of the game.
In 2010/2011, Lewis ended his state career with a brief spell in Western Australia colours, by which time he had represented Glamorgan and then Durham in county cricket.
He played for the former in 2004 and the latter in 2005 and 2006.
Picture by Paul Kane/Getty Images. Mick Lewis bowls for Western Australia in a T20 match in 2011.
In 2005, he mixed his time with Durham with a spell of league cricket in the Liverpool Competition with Huyton.
So, in that sense, by joining Yorkshire he is completing the northern set having played or coached in Yorkshire, Durham and Lancashire. Upon joining Yorkshire in 2022, that was something our ex-head coach Gibson did too.
In keeping with all good cricketers, not every day will go right. Adversity comes with the territory. His last of seven ODI appearances came in the famous clash between Australia and South Africa at Johannesburg in March 2006 when the hosts chased down 435 to win. Lewis was taken to task and conceded 113 in his 10 overs.
That kind of thing can, of course, benefit Yorkshire’s bowlers just as much as his experiences of all the titles that he’s won can.
Upon signing for Glamorgan in 2004, he made his Championship debut for them in a rain-affected late August draw against Yorkshire at Colwyn Bay when only 51 overs were bowled across the four days and the visitors made 158-5. Lewis claimed one of those wickets, opener Matthew Wood.
Picture by Hamish Blair/Getty Images. Mick Lewis poses for the camera during an Australian tour of South Africa in 2006. He is pictured here in Cape Town, with Table Mountain looking down on the iconic Newlands ground.
Lewis’s fellow Yorkshire coaches McGrath and Rich Pyrah – the county’s women’s head coach – also played in that fixture.
Welcome to Headingley, Mick!
