Wairarapa cricket stalwart Doug Bracewell has been appointed coach of the Central Districts Hinds senior women's team for the 2009-10 season. Bracewell, a Canterbury, Central Districts and Wairarapa representative in his playing days, will be in charge of a squad which currently has five players in the White Ferns line-up andtwo others in the national Emerging Players team. It will be his debut season for the Hinds but a vast coaching background includes stints with both the Wairarapa secondary schoolgirls and senior women's teams. Under Bracewell the Hinds will play a series of Twenty20 and one-day matches against teams from Auckland, Northern Districts, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago. Bracewell said yesterday he was excited to be coaching at the top provincial level at a time when the women's game was in good heart, something illustrated by the second placing of the White Ferns at the World Cup one-day tourney earlier this year. "Women's cricket is a healthy state here but there's always room for improvement and that's where the focus will be," Bracewell said, adding that his first training camp for the Hinds would be held in Palmerston North next month. Meanwhile, the Wairarapa Cricket Association have appointed Mark Brown as the coach of their senior men's team for the 2009-10 season. Brown, a former Wairarapa senior rep, coached Lansdowne to success in the Bidwell Cup and Umpires Cup competitions on the local scene last season. He believes the progress made by Wairarapa in provincial play last season suggested they were quite capable of earning themselves a Hawke Cup challenge this summer. "They certainly seem to be heading in the right direction and hopefully we can build on that momentum," he said. Brown will also be on the senior men's selection panel along with Brian James and Brian Campbell.
