Stevens named assistant coach for Western Australia

Lachlan Stevens has beaten a strong field to become Mickey Arthur's new assistant coach at Western Australia. Stevens, who spent several years as a fringe batsman with South Australia and Queensland, was favoured over big names believed to include Jason Gillespie, Allan Donald and Carl Hooper.

Despite his relative youth at 31, Stevens has plenty of coaching experience, having taken on the role of high performance coordinator at the Centre of Excellence in 2004. For the past two seasons, he has been assistant to the Queensland coach Trevor Barsby, and his past roles also included a stint as career and education manager with Queensland Rugby Union.

"I am excited by the challenge to work with the players of the Retravision Warriors and look forward to helping them to fulfil their potential in the coming seasons," Stevens said. "I also saw this as a fantastic opportunity to work with Mickey Arthur and learn from one of the leading coaches in world cricket."

Western Australia identified Stevens as a "hands-on" coach who would complement Arthur as he tries to lift the Warriors, who haven't won any silverware since the 2003-04 one-day trophy. Arthur was confident Stevens would be a good fit with Western Australia.

"Lachlan is a very hard worker," Arthur said. "When you are preparing players to be the very best they can be, it is vital that the coaches set the standard in terms of the level of application required to succeed at interstate level."