England's bowling coach David Saker to stay in job until summer 2015

England's bowling coach David Saker to stay in job until summer 2015

• Australian coach pledges his future ahead of the Ashes
• England fend off interested parties, including Australia

The England team have received a significant boost following their arrival in Perth ahead of the Ashes series with the announcement that David Saker, their Australian bowling coach, has pledged his future to them at least until the end of the 2015 summer.

In recent months, Saker has been a target for other teams, not least the Australians themselves who eventually appointed Craig McDermott instead, but after negotiations with the England and Wales Cricket Board, particularly the outgoing managing director of England Cricket, Hugh Morris, he will continue in his current role.

In announcing the decision, Morris said: "David Saker has made – and continues to make – an enormous contribution to the success of the England team. Since joining us in May 2010 he has worked with – and developed – an outstanding bowling unit which has been key to winning two successive Ashes series, winning a global event and climbing to No1 in the world.

"His contribution has been such that we are aware that other countries would dearly have loved David to be a part of their management group and that is why this announcement is so important. It is a great a boost on the first day of this Ashes campaign that we can confirm that David Saker has committed himself to the England cause until the end of summer of 2015 which includes two Ashes series, an ICC World T20 in Bangladesh, a home campaign against India and an ICC Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand."

Saker himself commented on his re-engagement, on what must surely be enhanced terms, with, presumably, some downtime built in. "I am delighted to have the opportunity to continue working with England. I have been privileged enough to have been involved in some memorable moments for English cricket over the last three and a half years and worked with some outstanding cricketers. Given the calibre of players in and around the side at the moment and the hunger and commitment from all involved I am very much looking forward to another very exciting period over the next couple of years starting with the immediate challenge of retaining the Ashes."

Saker joined England in 2010, succeeding Ottis Gibson, having impressed not only with outstanding credentials as a player, with Victoria and Tasmania, and as coach with Victoria again, and Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League, but in the manner in which he paid his own way for interview in England rather than conduct it by video conference. He struck an immediate chord with the bowling group during the World T20 in the Caribbean and described himself as "blown away" by the quality of players he had with which to work, something he had not anticipated.

Since then the bowling group has gone from strength to strength, and his contribution in Australia last time in particular, was crucial, not least in the fourth Test match in Melbourne, his home ground, when he very strongly, not to say firmly, persuaded Andrew Strauss, against the captain's instinct and that of others, to bowl first: Australia were dismissed before lunch on the opening morning and had the game and the Ashes under control by the close.

Saker is an Anglophile, and has never craved moving from the organisation that he acknowledges gave him the opportunity in the first place. He loves England, loves living in the country (the Cotswolds in fact), and has a passion for the beer, which is, of course, the acid test. Shortly, he hopes to gain his British passport and eventually take on a job as director of cricket at a county, having already been approached by a number. He also hates batsmen, except when they are giving his bowlers time to put their feet up, which is another important prerequisite.

His work with the England pace bowlers has been outstanding, confirming him as probably the leading bowling coach in the game. His method, he has always stressed, is not to deal with bowling actions except the minutiae, but to help bowlers take 20 wickets in a match. It is about strategy and tactics, enhanced by the mountains of statistical data available to him and his charges, but also directed at helping bowlers to think for themselves, on the hoof, a facility that is often forgotten in an age of technical spoonfeeding. His excitement at the depth of talent coming through the system now is palpable. They will be in good hands.