Julia Price to work with Brisbane Heat BBL team

Julia Price will join the Brisbane Heat men’s coaching staff for the Big Bash League (BBL) 09, becoming the league’s first female coach. She will work alongside Darren Lehmann, the head coach, James Hopes, the assistant coach, Ryan Harris, the bowling coach and Gavin Fitness, the coaching assistant.

Price, the former Australian wicketkeeper,
has played ten Tests and 84 ODIs and was a part of Australia’s World Cup
winning sides in 1997 and 2005. She will link with the Heat from January 1 in their
clash against Perth Scorchers men at the Metricon Stadium in Gold Coast. She is
currently the United States of America’s coach and has earlier coached Tasmania
as well as Hobart Hurricanes in the first three editions of the Women’s Big
Bash League (WBBL). The Hurricanes twice made it to the semis then.

“We’d been chatting about whether there
were some professional development opportunities for her through her USA role
and we just went from there,” said Lehmann. “She has an excellent cricket brain
and plenty of experience as a head coach, so I can see her fitting quite neatly
into our set-up.”

“I’m pleased the Heat have been able to go in a direction that we haven’t seen yet in the BBL in having a woman on the coaching staff, but I don’t believe it will be the last time it happens either. Hopefully this works well for ‘Pricey’ and assists her with her role with USA Cricket in the future,” added the former coach of Australia’s men's teams.

Price, a 2019 Queensland Hall of Fame inductee,
had been commentating throughout the fifth edition of the WBBL. She said that
her stint with USA helped her discover and achieve more in her coaching career
and said, “I’m very excited at this opportunity provided to me by the Heat.”

“The role gives me great exposure to
different coaches and players and gets me out of my comfort zone to ensure I
keep developing as a coach, particularly now with my work with USA Cricket,” said
Price, who played 107 matches for Queensland and 38 for Tasmania. “There are
plenty of ways to approach the game and from my different ‘experiences’, I’m
hoping to be able to challenge the group to continue to think from a different
perspective.”

The ninth edition of the BBL begins on
December 17.