Robert James Cassell (born 28 April 1983 in

Melbourne 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 ...

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 ...

) is an

n cricketer and international coach who played first-class cricket for the

Victorian 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 ...

and South Australian Redbacks and also represented Australia in the

2002 Under-19 Cricket World Cup The 2002 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was played in New Zealand from 19 January to 9 February 2002. A total of 16 sides competed in the tournament with Australia defeating South Africa in the final. It was the fourth edition of the Under-19 Cric ...

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Playing career

Victoria Bushrangers

Cassell is a Fast Medium bowler with a number of first class and one day appearances to his name. At 188 cm, he was considered a genuine future prospect for Victoria from an early age. Cassell was a highly touted youngster for the

taking 4–33 in his first-class debut in 2002 against the

Queensland Bulls The Queensland men's cricket team or the Queensland Bulls is the representative cricket side in Australia's domestic cricket tournaments for the Australian state of Queensland: *Sheffield Shield: four-day matches with first-class status, sinc ...

. But injuries limited him to just a handful of First-Class and One-Day games. Cassell's performances in those early matches for the Bushrangers suggested potential, with 7 wickets (at an average of 22.71) in the

Pura Cup The Sheffield Shield is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams representing the six states of Australia. The Sheffield Shield is named after Lord Sheffield. Prior to the Shield bei ...

and 4 wickets in the

ING Cup The Ing Cup () is an international Go tournament with a cash prize of over US$400,000. It was created by, and is named after, Ing Chang-ki. The tournament is held once every four years and hence often nicknamed the Go Olympics. In the 7th In ...

at 22.50. Cassell played much of his early state cricket in the 2002–2003 season. Despite the Bushrangers baring through injury setbacks, 2006/07 proved a challenging season for Cassell. When frontline bowlers Shane Harwood, Allan Wise and Gerard Denton all found themselves injured throughout the season, but Cassell remained injured himself, it left the opportunity to Clinton McKay, Darren Pattinson and Grant Lindsay to make the step up to the state side. McKay and Pattison were both offered contracts in the place of Cassell due to injury and Brad Knowles. Cassell went through a period of two years where he couldn't play due to injury, spending time to recover physically and mentally to have another run at first-class cricket. Cassell went overseas believing he would never play cricket again but the urge returned when he found himself watching a Test on TV in a bar in Barcelona in 2008. In 2009 Cassell returned to cricket after remodelling his action (due to his legacy injuries) at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane and played Premier Cricket for the

Melbourne Cricket Club The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) is a sports club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is one of the oldest sports clubs in Australia. The MCC is responsible for management and development of the Melbourne Cricket Groun ...

. He broke back into the Victorian team in late 2009 a successful return to first-class cricket in Australia.

South Australia Redbacks

In 2010 after a successful return to playing, Cassell made the tough decision to leave his home state Victoria, and move to South Australia to take up an offer with the South Australia Redbacks where he believed his bowling opportunities would be greater. This proved to be a smart decision with a number of outstanding performances with the Redbacks including a huge 6-53 off 16.1 overs in November 2010 against Queensland in a Sheffield Shield match. Cassell went on to successfully play for the Redbacks during the 2010 and 2011 seasons until his genetic back injuries cut his bowling career short again.

Coaching career

South Australia Redbacks

Cassell took up a position with the Redbacks as a bowling coach helping the development of their upcoming talent. Cassell continued to coach with South Australia until 2017. Over the five years as a coach in South Australia, Cassell has helped leg-spinner Adam Zampa become a regular for Australia's ODI and T20 sides, and has also worked closely with Joe Mennie who made his Test debut last season. Cassell quietly forged a reputation as a bowling guru in his time at the Adelaide Oval five years ago under former Redbacks head coach Darren Berry. Cassell helped transform interstate 'cast-offs' including Mennie and Daniel Worrall, while bringing the best out of homegrown favourites Chadd Sayers and Kane Richardson.

Ireland National Cricket Team

In 2017 Cassell left South Australia to take up an opportunity as Assistant Head Coach and National Fast Bowling Coach with the

Ireland cricket team The Ireland men's cricket team represents All-Ireland in international cricket. The Irish Cricket Union, operating under the brand Cricket Ireland, is the sport's governing body in Ireland, and they organise the international team. The team ha ...

working under head coach Graham Ford. Ireland were in the process of admission to full

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global Sports governing body, governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa. In 1965, the body wa ...

(ICC) status which was successfully granted.

IPL

He was appointed as bowling coach for

Rajasthan Royals The Rajasthan Royals, also known as RR, are a professional Twenty20 cricket team based in Jaipur, Rajasthan, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Founded in 2008 as one of the initial eight franchises, the team is owned by Manoj ...

References

External links

Rob Cassell player profile on cricinfo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cassell, Rob 1983 births Living people Australian cricketers Victoria cricketers Melbourne Cricket Club cricketers Cricketers from Melbourne South Australia cricketers Kensington cricketers 21st-century Australian sportsmen