Fitzpatrick confirms England application

Cathryn Fitzpatrick has quashed rumours she will not apply for the England head coach role. She has just been appointed the acting coach for her home side Australia, but that will not stop her applying for the England role. "On the contrary," she told Cricinfo on Wednesday. "I am currently putting the final touches to my application and am hopeful that it will be well received."

She is keen to also lodge her interest in the full-time role with Australia, whenever it becomes available. "Hopefully the position will be advertised in the next week or so," she said, "and I will definitely be applying."

Fitzpatrick has six days to apply for the England role; the deadline is May 15 and interviews in front of a four-strong panel will be held two weeks later, on May 31. Just two months after retiring from playing internationals she finds herself handily placed - and well qualified after working with the Australia academy - for both positions.

It's a clever tactic to apply for both positions. England will be keen to see if she can replicate their former Australian coach John Harmer's success - under Harmer, England rose to second in the world, and a job offer from them would give her bigger bargaining power should Cricket Australia give her the position, too. The ECB would like to have someone in place by mid-July ahead of their New Zealand series in August, but while Fitzpatrick is contracted with Australia until the end of July, it would make sense for her to be given a few weeks' grace should she be made an offer and should she accept.

It's more likely that working with her Australia team-mates would be Fitzpatrick's job of choice, but she will have to play the waiting game with them, having only been appointed in a temporary capacity.

The England role became available last month when Richard Bates announced he was leaving to live in Australia. The Australia vacancy came up when Mark Sorrell, who had been in the role for two years, took an offer to be South Australia men's coach.

Both of the former coaches had taken over from men - Bates replacing John Harmer, and Sorrell taking over from Steve Jenkin. But now, given her credentials, it seems distinctly possible that at least one of the two new international coaches will be female.