SACA COACH AMAR RASHID TO JOIN ENGLAND LIONS TOURING PARTY AS CONSULTANT COACH

Today, SACA are extremely proud to announce that Amar Rashid, one of the Academy’s long-standing coaches, will begin working with the ECB as a Consultant Coach, and is set to travel to Abu Dhabi in mid-February to work with the England Lions on their forthcoming tour against Pakistan-A.

As a player, leg-spinning all-rounder Rashid, 39, represented Leeds/Bradford University between 2002 and 2007 ahead of making nine List-A appearances for the Unicorns across 2011 and 2012. He also made a number of appearances for Professional County Club’s Second Elevens, including Worcestershire, Leicestershire and Hampshire, alongside carving out a successful career coaching in the game.

He joined SACA in the winter of 2022, the year the Academy was formed, and this latest appointment to the England Lions sees him returning to the international set-up, having previously worked in a similar consultancy role with the ECB Performance Pathway and also with the West Indies.

Upon the completion of his role with the England Lions, Rashid will return to SACA to resume his coaching role with the Academy throughout what will be another busy year ahead for the squad.

Speaking of his appointment to the England Lions coaching set-up, Rashid commented:

“I’m delighted to once again be working with the ECB and am really looking forward to the forthcoming tour to Abu Dhabi”

“I thoroughly enjoyed my last experience of working with them and can’t wait to do so again. There are some extremely talented young cricketers in the touring Lions group and I’m excited about the opportunity to help them develop their games.

“I would also like to thank all at SACA, especially Tom Brown, who has been instrumental in helping me develop my own coaching style. He has pushed me to look at the many different aspects of coaching, not just the technical side of the game, and being involved at SACA, in such a high-performance elite environment, has really helped me on my coaching journey.”

Coach Amar with the Lions in the 2025 Summer

Tom Brown, Founder and Managing Director of SACA, commented:

“We couldn’t be happier for Amar, who is an extremely gifted coach, and he thoroughly deserves this opportunity to work with the Lions on the international stage again.

“We’ve seen just what Amar is capable of as a coach and it comes as little surprise to us that his skills have been recognised by those running the Lions set up.

"At SACA we are enormously proud of the opportunities we have created in the professional game for not only our South Asian players, but for our coaches too, and Amar is the latest SACA coach to have been rewarded with an opportunity at a higher level in the game.

“We wish him every success on the upcoming tour, knowing that he will do himself and us proud, and we look forward to him returning to the SACA fold upon his return.”