After almost seven months of uncertainty, the Hobart Hurricanes have announced a new men's coach.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Tasmanian Tigers leader Jeff Vaughan will also mentor the Hurricanes as they search for their first BBL title this season.
"When I first signed up here [this year], we were only talking the Tigers but at that stage, we didn't have someone by the name of Ricky Ponting as head of strategy either," Vaughan said.
"The Hurricanes piece was largely separated at that stage, we weren't speaking a lot about that but that's four months ago.
"In that time a lot of things change and we've got a great head of our Hurricanes now, it's an exciting time for the whole organisation."
Joining Vaughan in the coaching crew will be senior assistant Darren Berry and bowling coach James Hopes.
Berry has won three Pakistan Super Leagues and an Indian Premier League championship as coach and specialises in strategy and tactics.
Hopes is one of Ponting's right-hand men at the Dehli Capitals, coaching together for the past five seasons after Mowbray's favourite son identified Hopes' coaching talents while they were both still playing.
Tasked with getting the coaching group together when hired as head of strategy last month, Ponting said continuity was a big factor in Vaughan's hiring.
"Obviously he's the head coach of the Tasmanian Tigers, I felt that Hobart and Tasmania is well suited to be a one-coached town and one-coached state," Ponting said.
"Everyone I spoke to about Jeff, spoke about him with glowing reports, [he's a] highly-skilled coach, very experienced coach now having worked with Tasmania, Hurricanes and in the Australian set-up over the past four or five years.
"His people management skills are second to none and literally there wasn't a bad word spoken about him."
Names like former Australian coach Justin Langer were thrown up along the way as Ponting said he had "pages and pages of names".
He said he talked long and hard about it with Langer but his former Australian teammate is pursuing other opportunities.
Ponting felt Vaughan was definitely the right way to go.
"The more I started looking at those names and thinking about exactly what the Hobart Hurricanes need here and now, it was very obvious to me that one name stood out on that page and that was Jeff," Ponting said
"I just think there's so many positives with having him as head coach of this franchise ... the fact that we've got this continuity is good for the Hurricanes."
The announcement of the Hurricanes' coaching panel comes a day after it was revealed that they will have eighth, 16th, 17th and 32nd pick of the competition's weighted draft for international players.
For the first time, international players will be entering a draft system, with the Hurricanes copping what could be seen as the rough end of the deal.
However, the four coaches talked plenty of tactics in a meeting on Thursday, coming out with a whiteboard of information, players and strategy as they search for middle-order players and bowling options of both spin and pace.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark www.examiner.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter: @examineronline
- Follow us on Instagram: @examineronline
- Follow us on Google News: The Examiner