Aussie coach was close to Sussex move

Australia coach Tim Neilsen has revealed how Hove nearly became his home.

Sussex wanted to sign the London-born 41-year-old a decade ago when he was with South Australia as a wicketkeeper-batsman.

Shaun Hunphries and Nick Wilton were the two stumpers on the staff at the time and although both were outstanding glovemen neither were scoring sufficient runs.

Dave Gilbert, chief executive at the time who played in the 1985 Ashes, turned to Neilsen after an approach for Paul Nixon failed and he signed for Kent.

Neilsen said: “I still had the grand idea of playing for Australia and in those days playing county cricket was part of your education.

“I had just been on an A tour to Zimbabwe and thought I might get in our one-day team or be understudy to Ian Healy and it would have been nice to have had a season over here.

“But Healy was never going to be replaced! My one chance came when I was playing decently was in 1993 but Tim Zoehrer came on the Ashes tour.”

Three years later Neilsen began to work with Australia coach John Buchanan as his assistant and after two years as head coach at the Australian School of Excellence in Brisbane, where he now lives, he followed Buchanan into the top job.

He inherited a team without the champion players who had characterised Buchanan’s successful era with Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden all retiring or on the verge of doing so.

So it was important in developing his own reputation as a coach that Australia won their series in South Africa earlier this year after losing to the same opponents at the end of 2008.

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