Our Coaches
Australian Men's head coach Andrew McDonald
After years of coaching in the UK and Australia, Victorian, Andrew McDonald was appointed Head Coach of the Australian Men’s Team in 2022, overseeing the Men’s Test, ODI and T20 sides.
While still playing professional cricket, Andrew was appointed Head Coach of Leicestershire at a time when the Midlands club had not won a game in the County Championship for two years. He created a cultural reset at the club, as they eventually snapped what became a 992-day drought without victory.
In August 2016, McDonald departed the UK to return home and take over as Head Coach of both Victoria and the Melbourne Renegades, where success soon followed. He led Victoria to two Sheffield Shield titles in three seasons in charge, plus a domestic one-day cup, before spearheading the Renegades to BBL|08 glory, the club's first and only title to date.
In October 2019, Andrew was appointed Assistant Coach and led Australia's ODI team away from home against India.
Australian Women's Head Coach Shelley Nitschke
Shelley is an incredibly well-respected coach with a proven track record. After working with the team as an Assistant Coach since early 2018, and a stint as Interim Head Coach in July/August 2022, Shelly was appointed full-time Head Coach of the Australian Women’s Cricket team, after a strong Commonwealth Games campaign, which saw Australia claim an historic gold medal as T20 cricket made its debut in Birmingham.
The legendary Australian allrounder from Adelaide, earned the Best New Talent title at the Commonwealth Bank Awards after a remarkable debut year. During her international playing career from 2005 to 2011, Shelley played 122 matches for Australia across all three formats taking 153 wickets as a finger-spinner and scoring more than 3000 runs. Shelley also won four consecutive Belinda Clark awards between 2009-2012.
After her playing career, Shelley transitioned into coaching in South Australia, before taking on an assistant role under Matthew Mott in the national set up in 2018 and later coaching the Perth Scorchers.