McDermott has helped produce some of the greatest young bowlers Australia have seen in a while

Former Australia pace bowler Craig McDermott has announced that he will be returning to his coaching role at Cricket Australia’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Brisbane less than a year after he stepped down as the national team’s bowling coach.

Cricket Australia and McDermott also agreed that certain elements of his his Pace Bowling Australia programme will be held at the CoE, which helps identify potential future talents.

McDermott has had a lot of success at the CoE, producing bowling superstars such as James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc and carefully watching over the reinvention of Peter Siddle.

“I’ll be back working with all the best young blokes in the country again, which will be nice,” McDermott told ESPNcricinfo. “Basically I’m working at the CoE. If bowlers come through the centre, certainly the likes of (Pat) Cummins, or if those guys are going on the A tour to England this year, they’ll certainly be coming up to the CoE beforehand and I’ll have some input with those guys preparing for a tour.

“I’m not sure what will happen with the Aussie team before their Ashes stint but if they come through Brisbane, I’ll work with them there. In the meantime, it’s been a good thing for me to get back to the grassroots. I just spotted a young guy in Melbourne last week and I’ve just rung Victoria about having a look at him.”

Just like numerous former Australia players, McDermott was extremely frustrated with the way in which the national team succumbed to a humiliating 4-0 whitewash at the hands of India.

He was constantly in touch with Pattinson and Siddle, but was unsure why Pattinson was not being given longer bowling spells.

“I’m not really sure why they did that, I’m not up to speed with the inner workings at the moment, but it looked a bit odd to me as well,” McDermott said. “If they were worried about his workloads, why would they pick him? Other than that he has bowled pretty well over there so far.”

McDermott has also revealed that he will be travelling on a number of Under-19 tours and will visit India later this year to scout any bowling talents as part of the MRF Pace Foundation.

He will also be involved with setting up junior academies all around Australia, including cities like Brisbane, Townsville, Mackay, Gold Coast, Sydney, Lismore and Melbourne.

“That’s going to keep us pretty busy,” McDermott said. “The academies are proper athlete development programmes with physio screening, strength and conditioning programmes, and focus on developing life skills as well as their cricket skills.”