David James Saker (born 29 May 1966) is an Australian

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

coach and former player who played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

for

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

and

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

. He has been the fast bowling coach for the

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

Sri Lanka national cricket team The Sri Lanka men's national cricket team, (; ) nicknamed The Lions, represents Sri Lanka in men's international cricket. It is a full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test cricket, Test, One-Day International (ODI) and T ...

Playing career

Saker was born at

Melbourne, Victoria Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

in 1966. A right-arm fast-medium bowler, Saker made his first class debut in the 1994–95 season. He spent six years with the Bushrangers before accepting an offer to join the Tasmanian side at the start of the 2000–01 season. As a veteran in a fairly young side he was named as their Player of the Year for 2001–02. Saker was also a handy batsman, making four first class half-centuries, even opening the batting at times for the Bushrangers in limited-overs games. He retired in 2002–03 with 247 wickets to his name at 30.10.

Coaching

In 2004 he became an assistant coach at Victoria under Greg Shipperd. On 8 April 2010, Saker was appointed as the fast bowling coach of the

England cricket team The England men's cricket team represents cricket in England, England and cricket in Wales, Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Maryleb ...

, replacing the departing Ottis Gibson. After Saker's key role in the team winning the

2010–11 Ashes series The 2010–11 Ashes series (known as the Vodafone Ashes Series for sponsorship reasons) was the 66th series of Test cricket matches played to contest The Ashes. The series was played in Australia as part of the England cricket team's tour of the ...

, he was handed a new three-year contract. Saker left the English job in early 2015, and was appointed head coach of the

Melbourne Renegades Melbourne Renegades are an Australian professional men's Twenty20 franchise cricket club based in Melbourne, the capital city of the Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. They compete in the Australian Twenty20 cricket competit ...

in the

Big Bash League The Big Bash League (BBL), also known as the KFC Big Bash League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in Australia. Established in 2011 by Cricket Australia, the Big Bash League replaced the previous competitio ...

. Two months later, he was also appointed coach of the

Victoria Bushrangers The Victoria cricket team is an Australian first-class men's cricket team based in the Australian state of Victoria. The men’s team, which first played in 1851, represents the state of Victoria in the Marsh Sheffield Shield first-class co ...

in first class and one day cricket. He led Victoria to the Sheffield Shield in his only season with the state, and was then appointed fast-bowling coach for the

Australian national cricket team The Australia men's national cricket team represents Australia in international cricket. Along with England, it is the joint oldest team in Test cricket history, playing and winning the first ever Test match in 1877; the team also plays One ...

in July 2016. He resigned on 7 February 2019 with immediate effect following investigations into his role in the ball tampering saga. In July 2019, he was appointed as the fast bowling coach of the

United States national cricket team The United States men's national cricket team is the team that represents the United States in international cricket. The team was formerly organized by the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA), which became an List of Interna ...

on a short-term basis. In December 2019, he was appointed as the fast bowling coach of

on two-year contract. He then coached England at the

2022 T20 World Cup The 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the eighth edition of the Men's T20 World Cup, formerly known as the ICC World Twenty20. It was played in Australia from 16 October to 13 November 2022. In the final, England beat Pakistan by five wickets to ...

and agreed to coach the England Test team for the

2023 Ashes The 2023 Ashes series, branded as the Liverpool Victoria, LV= Insurance Men's Ashes Series for sponsorship reasons, was a series of Test cricket matches played between England cricket team, England and Australia national cricket team, Australia ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saker, David 1966 births Living people Victoria cricketers Tasmania cricketers Coaches of the England cricket team Australian cricketers Australian cricket coaches Cricketers from Melbourne Melbourne Renegades coaches 20th-century Australian sportsmen