Former England allrounder Dimitri Mascarenhas has been appointed coach of the Australia U-16 side that will participate in the national U-17 Championships in Brisbane later this year. Mascarenhas quit as New Zealand’s bowling coach at the end of the home series against Australia in February to spend more time with his family in Melbourne.
Mascarenhas said Cricket Australia high-performance chief Pat Howard was influential in his appointment. “I had lots of meetings with lots of different people trying to get jobs and stuff,” Mascarenhas said. “I spoke quite a few times to Pat Howard to see what we could do and he’s been really good. He said he would help in any way he could.”
Mascarenhas, who took over as New Zealand’s bowling coach after Shane Bond stepped down following the 2015 World Cup, recognised his modus operandi would have to change in his new role.
“When I start talking about guys like Trent Boult and Kane Williamson their eyes just light up,” he said. “My language will have to change. I’ll probably just have to bring in a Xbox and an iPad and they’ll be happy.”
Mascarenhas represented England in 34 limited-overs games and played in 195 first-class, 268 List A and 130 T20 matches. “I wish that when I was 18 to 24 I would have worked harder on my game. It’s easy to get sucked up into the whole hype of it, getting paid to play cricket.”
