Graeme Welch freely admits that he shed a few tears when he bode farewell recently to the Warwickshire bowlers he has mentored for four-and-a-half years.
Welch has left Edgbaston to become elite performance director at Derbyshire, having grasped the chance to take overall charge of a county set-up.
With carte-blanche to restructure playing operations top to bottom at Derby, it is a great opportunity for Welch – an offer which, in career terms, he couldn’t refuse.
The highly popular Geordie is understandably excited by the move – although it came at a price as he breaks a connection to a Bears attack which he, as bowling coach, has moulded into arguably the best in the country.
“When I said good-bye I was in tears,” Welch said. “They are terrific lads – really good cricketers but also great blokes – and it has been a privilege to work with them.
“But this is a fantastic opportunity for me. Derbyshire is a great club that I know really well with a lot of people still here from when I was a player. I can’t just wait to get on with it.”
It is a great opportunity, yes, but also comes with associated pressure. To be given control of the whole playing side of affairs means that you are bound to carry the can – for good or bad.
Having plumped for wholesale revamping of all the coaching operations at the club, Derbyshire chairman Chris Grant has invested a lot of faith in Welch by installing him at the top. He will expect results. But Welch is not at all fazed by the challenge ahead. “We all know that the bottom line is that you have to win games,” he said. “But you achieve that by putting the right culture in place and that’s what I intend to do.
“I have lots of ideas and a far-reaching brief which covers the whole club – the first team down through the academy and all the age-groups – and you have to get the right culture in place throughout every level.
“It is something I always tried hard to do at Warwickshire, working on the senior bowlers and then looking beneath them for the next ones coming along and trying to unearth more jewels.
“I am very lucky to have a chance like this. In the end, not getting the director of cricket job at Warwickshire last winter turned out to be very useful for me.
“At the time I was gutted but, , as it turned out, the interview process was crucial for me. It really opened my eyes as to what is involved in taking on an overall coaching role, rather than just a bowling-coach role, and what people expect from it.
“I am really pleased and excited by the challenges ahead at Derby. But I will always wish Warwickshire only the best. Alan Richardson has gone in there and I have known him a long time and always got on with him really well.
“He is only just starting out as a coach and I am sure the Bears bowlers will help him, especially in the early stages, as much as he helps them – just as they did with me.”
Warwickshire reacted quickly to Welch’s resignation by lining up fellow former Bears seamer Richardson as his successor. Richardson, 38, still had another year left to run on his playing contract at Worcestershire but decided to retire with immediate effect in order to seize an early opportunity on the coaching ladder.
A fine bowler and highly-respected person, he may well turn out to be a fine coach. But he has some big shoes to fill in the immediate term.
In terms of bowling coaching, Warwickshire have lost a sorcerer (in the last four years, Welch pretty much turned all the Bears’ seam-bowlers into England material) and gained an apprentice.
The switch continues the prolonged period of back-room transition which the club entered on when Ashley Giles abruptly quit as director of cricket. They badly need stability now following the latest change which Brown admits sees the loss of a man who was a huge component of the county championship triumph in 2012.
“Pop has been instrumental in the club’s success over recent seasons,” Brown said. “He has proven to be a fantastic coach. Derbyshire is a club he knows well and the restructuring they have undertaken provides an exciting opportunity for him. While we are very sad to see him go, he leaves with our best wishes and some fond memories of the success he has contributed to over recent seasons.”
Welch is very much looking forward to an opportunity to shape an entire county coaching structure – and the strategy underpinning it – exactly the way he wants it.
His first challenge will be to return Derbyshire to the championship Division One after their single season up there ended in ignominious relegation last September.
“The opportunity at Derbyshire will give me the chance to take overall charge of cricket affairs at a club for the first time,” he said.
“I am excited by the prospect, although Edgbaston retains a very special place in my heart.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Bears and am proud to have been part of the coaching group that has developed one of the most potent bowling attacks in the country.” That bowling attack still has that potency, of course, and remains arguably the strongest in county cricket. But how will it cope, individually and collectively, without the man who, to a large extent, built it?
