Ryan Campbell: Durham appoint ex-Netherlands manager as head coach

The 50-year-old replaces James Franklin in Chester-le-Street.

Campbell spent four years in charge of the Dutch national team, after working as a batting coach for Hong Kong.

"I am extremely honored to be appointed as Durham's head coach and can't wait to get started," the Australian told the club's website.

< p class="" data-reactid= ".2v8vcywfje.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-5">He suffered an unexplained cardiac arrest in April and was placed in an induced coma for seven days.

"I crashed down a slide with my daughter and luckily landed on a girl's foot whose the mother had just taken a CPR course two weeks ago, and she saved my life," Campbell told the BBC's Stumped podcast in June.

"More I looked into - and my wife told me how close it was - I i made a few changes, and i wont let the little things bother me so much. Family is the number one priority and sometimes working in sport you can forget that a bit."

He returned to his role with the Netherlands and led them to a fourth place finish in their group at the T20 World Cup in Australia last month, including a famous victory against South Africa.Campbell 'best suited for Durham'

Campbell takes over at Durham following departure of former neo-international Zelanders Franklin in September.

Franklin led them to the One Day Cup Final in 2021, but the team struggled in the County Championship last season, finishing sixth in Division Two.

Cricket manager Marcus North thinks Campbell, who made two appearances of a day for Australia, is the right person to move the county forward.

"After a long recruitment process, it became clear that Ryan was the best candidate for Durham and the county," North said.

"Ryan comes to Durham with an excellent reputation after a successful spell in as Netherlands head coach.

"I look forward to working with him and continue to build on the foundation laid over the past four years with this exciting group of players."