Griffith, 46, brings a wealth of experience to the role, sitting under Australia men’s coach Andrew McDonald and current bowling coach Daniel Vettori, who will continue to tour with the men’s team. He will also report to CA national team Ben Oliver, having previously worked with him in Western Australia.
Griffith is currently Victoria’s bowling coach but has also been the head coach of Tasmania and the Hobart Hurricanes. He was WA and Perth Scorchers senior assistant coach under Justin Langer before taking up the head coaching role in Tasmania. He was also the long-time bowling coach at Royal Challengers Bangalore [RCB] Worked with San Francisco Unicorns in IPL and MLC. He had brief stints with the Australian men’s team on bilateral tours in 2012 and 2016 and the 2019 ODI World Cup.
Griffith’s appointment comes at a time when Australia’s fast bowling depth is coming into sharp focus with Australia’s big three of Pat Cummins, 31, Mitchell Starc, soon-to-be 35 and Josh Hazlewood, 34, unlikely to play consistently across all three formats in the short to medium term.
Griffith will be based in Brisbane at CA’s Center of Excellence and implement a national strategy to develop fast bowlers. He will be absent due to franchise commitments in addition to preparing the national fast bowlers as well as stepping in as coaching support for the Australia A team and Australia. He will also be the point-person to develop fast bowling coaches and coordinate with state bowling programs.
Griffith’s experience and knowledge of the three state programs and his work with a number of Australia’s bowlers at various levels will be important as there has been some friction between states to manage CA’s high performance units and some CA contracted bowlers as well as domestically contracted bowlers on the fringes of national selection. There have also been injuries throughout the past seven months that have severely tested Australia’s depth across four different international series across three formats.
His time in the IPL at RCB, where he worked with Green, Josh Hazlewood and Mohammad Siraj at various stages, is significant as CAO attempts to embrace the IPL and T20 as they try to navigate the management of their bowlers in a rapidly evolving franchise era. There are opportunities during the period when CA would prefer to take their rest or prepare specifically for the upcoming international series.
Macdonald was thrilled to secure a coach of Griffith’s caliber for the role. “I’m delighted Adam will bring his extensive experience as the national pace bowling coach to Cricket Australia and become an important part of our coaching,” he said. “Adam’s expertise across all formats will be invaluable in preparing pace bowlers for Australia’s national men’s teams.”
Griffith will finish the domestic season with Victoria in his current role as bowling coach under Chris Rogers, with the team currently second in both the Sheffield Shield and Dean Jones Trophy, before moving to Brisbane to take up his new post.
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