Welshman Gareth Davies will take over the reins at the Sparks for the next two seasons.
Davies replaces Craig Cumming, who left mid-season to take up a role as head coach of the English women’s team, the Blaze, in Nottingham.
Davies has extensive experience in the women’s game in the United Kingdom. He has coached the Worcestershire Women, been an assistant coach at the Birmingham Phoenix women in the Hundred as well as the Central Sparks prior to the change in structure of women’s cricket in the UK.
He has previously assisted the White Ferns in his specialty areas of batting and fielding when they toured the UK last year.
Davies, now the coach of the Loughborough University women’s side, said he was excited for the new opportunity.
“I am passionate about driving high-performance environments that cultivate excellence and success,’’ he said in a press release.
"The Sparks and Otago cricket are well placed to be a dominant force in domestic cricket and I’m keen to be a part of that."
Otago Cricket Association general manager of performance Steve Martin said he was thrilled to secure a coach of Davies’ experience to take the Otago Sparks forward.
“Gareth’s skillset, and experience will be a real asset to the Sparks and to our performance programme in general,’’ he said in a press release.
"He is thrilled to be appointed and to be able to continue with the great work already done and to stamp his own style and personality, to continue to develop our female athletes to achieve more success with our programme."
Davies will finish his role at Loughborough University at the start of next month and arrive in New Zealand on July 7 when he will step straight into winter and preseason training.
He has quite the act to follow. Cumming led the team to three one-day titles in five years and they also make the final of the Super Smash twice.
