Zimbabwe snap up Somerset’s Kirby to take over as bowling coach

Steve Kirby Somerset Custom — Steve Kirby PIC: Somerset County Cricket Club

English Country club Somerset have announced that their bowling coach Steve Kirby will be leaving to join up with Zimbabwe to take up the lead bowling coach.

This will be at the end of the season. This will be at the end of September.

Zimbabwe have been looking for a bowling coach for the past few months and Kirby said he could not turn down the opportunity when it came along.

“When this opportunity came along, I felt it was one that was too good to ignore,” he told the Somerset website. “I’ve got aspirations to be the very best coach that I can be, and international cricket is something that I really want to be involved with.

“I’ve worked really well with Dave Houghton (Zimbabwe Head Coach) previously when we are at Derbyshire and when this position presented itself, I felt that I couldn’t turn it down. The scale of the role is hugely exciting because I won’t just be working with the national XI, I’ll also be involved with the whole Pathway structure across the country.”

Houghton has been on record in saying that the national team over which he has overseen a bump in the performance of the national team in recent weeks.

Kirby is a former fast bowler played for Somerset between 2011 and 2014, claiming over 180 wickets across the three formats of the game and re-joined the Club as a coach ahead of the 2021 season.