Christopher Eric Wilfred Silverwood (born 5 March 1975) is a former international

cricketer Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

and a former head coach of the

England cricket team The England cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club (the MCC) since 1903. Eng ...

. He is currently the Head Coach of the

Sri Lanka Cricket Team The Sri Lanka men's national cricket team, ( si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජාතික ක්‍රිකට් කණ්ඩායම, ta, இலங்கை தேசிய கிரிக்கெட் அணி) nicknamed The Lions ...

Early life and domestic playing career

Born in

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wake ...

, West Yorkshire, Silverwood was educated at Garforth Comprehensive School, and as a right-arm fast bowler, made his debut for

Yorkshire County Cricket Club Yorkshire County Cricket Club is one of 18 first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Yorkshire. Yorkshire are the most successful team in English cricketing hi ...

in 1993. He played for his native county for thirteen years, and was one of a battery of fast bowlers which the county produced in the late 1990s. With the club he won the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It b ...

in 2001 and the C&G (

Friends Provident Trophy The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom. It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scotland and Ireland. Lan ...

) in 2002. Former England bowling coach Bob Cottam once said he was faster than

Allan Donald Allan Anthony Donald (born 20 October 1966) is a South African former cricketer who is also the current bowling coach of Bangladesh national cricket team. Often nicknamed 'White Lightning' due to his lightning quick bowling, he is considered ...

, and he possessed a lively outswinger and hostile bouncer when the conditions suited. He was also known for his stamina, and was noted for his ability to maintain his pace when returning for spells late in the day. He signed for

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbourin ...

for the 2006 season after playing only six games for Yorkshire in the 2005 season, having left by mutual consent after sustaining a series of injuries. He had a good first season with Middlesex, taking 63 first-class wickets, but struggled with injuries thereafter, leaving the club in 2009. In 2009 he signed a contract with

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its ...

-based franchise Mashonaland Eagles as player-coach, making his debut against

Matabeleland Tuskers The Matabeleland Tuskers is one of five Zimbabwean cricket franchises. They are a first-class cricket team, based in the Bulawayo Metropolitan and Matabeleland North area. They play their home matches at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo. They ...

. By the end of his career, the six-foot one inch paceman had taken 577 first-class wickets in 184 matches at an average of 27.41, with a best of 7 for 93 and 259 List A one day wickets at 25.05 with a best of 5 for 28. Usually a tail-end batsman he was occasionally used as a

pinch hitter In baseball, a pinch hitter is a substitute batter. Batters can be substituted at any time while the ball is dead (not in active play); the manager may use any player who has not yet entered the game as a substitute. Unlike basketball, American ...

in one day games. Silverwood won the NBC Denis Compton Award in 1996.

Internationals

Silverwood was selected for the

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

tours of

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

and

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in 1996–97. He made his international debut in the first

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World Cup ...

(ODI) against

on 15 December, with Zimbabwe winning by two wickets. Silverwood followed this with his

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

debut in the first Test, a match which England drew with the scores level at the end of the match. He took four wickets, but was not selected for the second Test, though he did play in the remaining ODIs against Zimbabwe as well as the final two ODIs of the New Zealand leg of the trip. In May 1997, Silverwood made his only home international appearance when he played the third ODI against Australia. His next international appearances did not come until 1999, when he played four Tests of the 1999–2000 tour of South Africa. Silverwood struggled, with the ball not moving, taking 7 wickets at an average of just below 50. He made a final Test appearance in the

2002–03 Ashes series The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

in Australia, finishing his international career with a total of six Tests and seven ODIs.

Coaching career

Essex

In 2010, Silverwood joined

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

as bowling coach, and was promoted to the head coach position ahead of the 2016 season. His first year in the role saw Essex promoted to the First Division of the

, followed by them winning the competition in 2017.

England

Silverwood joined the

coaching team as full-time fast bowling coach in January 2018. He was announced as the new head coach on 7 October 2019, following the departure of

Trevor Bayliss Trevor Harley Bayliss (born 21 December 1962) is an Australian cricket coach and former first class cricketer. He played for New South Wales between 1985 and 1997 before becoming a coach. Bayliss was coach of England from 2015 to 2019. He coa ...

at the end of the 2019 season. He was appointed head of selectors in April 2021, which combined both his roles. In the

2021–22 Ashes series The 2021–22 Ashes series, named the Vodafone Men's Ashes Series for sponsorship reasons, was a series of five Test cricket matches that were contested between England and Australia for The Ashes. The series was played at five venues across ...

Silverwood was criticised for poor decisions - most notably batting first and omitting both

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and

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in the First Test, and not selecting Jack Leach in the Second Test. It was announced on 3 February 2022, that he would be leaving the role, following a 4:0 Ashes campaign.

Sri Lanka

In April 2022, he was appointed as head coach for

Sri Lanka national cricket team The Sri Lanka men's national cricket team, ( si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජාතික ක්‍රිකට් කණ්ඩායම, ta, இலங்கை தேசிய கிரிக்கெட் அணி) nicknamed The Lions ...

for 2 years.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Silverwood, Chris 1975 births Living people England Test cricketers English cricketers Mashonaland cricketers Middlesex cricketers Yorkshire cricketers England One Day International cricketers Cricketers from Pontefract People from Garforth NBC Denis Compton Award recipients Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers English cricketers of 1969 to 2000 English cricketers of the 21st century People educated at Garforth Academy