Ben Sawyer (born 1978/79) is an Australian cricket coach, who is the current head coach of the

New Zealand women's national cricket team The New Zealand women's national cricket team, nicknamed the White Ferns, represents New Zealand in international women's cricket. One of eight teams competing in the ICC Women's Championship (the highest level of international women's cricket ...

, Birmingham Phoenix women's team in The Hundred, and

Royal Challengers Bangalore Royal Challengers Bangalore (often abbreviated as RCB) are a franchise cricket team based in Bangalore, Karnataka, that plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL). It was founded in 2008 by United Spirits and named after the company's liquor ...

in the Women's Premier League. He has also previously worked as head coach of the

Sydney Sixers The Sydney Sixers are an Australian professional franchise men's cricket team, competing in Australia's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition, the Big Bash League (BBL). Along with the Sydney Thunder, the Sixers are the successors of the New ...

in the

Women's Big Bash League The Women's Big Bash League (known as the WBBL and, for sponsorship reasons, the Weber WBBL) is the Australian women's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition. The WBBL replaced the Australian Women's Twenty20 Cup, which ran from the 2007–08 ...

, assistant coach of Australia women, and a coach of New South Wales Breakers.

Career

Sawyer has been the head coach of

in the

. Under his leadership, the Sixers won two WBBL competitions in 2016–17 and 2017–18, and were losing finalists in the 2015–16 and 2018–19 WBBL seasons. He had the highest win percentage of any women's Twenty20 coach. Sawyer has also worked as an assistant coach for the Australia women's under-19 team, and for New South Wales Breakers as a fast bowling coach. Prior to the

2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 The 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 was the sixth edition of the ICC Women's World Twenty20, hosted in the West Indies from 9 to 24 November 2018. It the second World Twenty20 hosted by the West Indies (after the 2010 edition), and the West In ...

, Sawyer was appointed an assistant coach of the

Australia women's national cricket team The Australian women's national cricket team (formerly also known as the Southern Stars) represent Australia in international women's cricket. Currently captained by Meg Lanning and coached by Shelley Nitschke, they are the top team in all wor ...

, where he focused on fast bowling. He replaced Ashley Noffke in the role. Australian cricketer

Ellyse Perry Ellyse Alexandra Perry (born 3 November 1990) is an Australian sportswoman who has represented her country in cricket and association football. Having debuted for both the national cricket team and the national soccer team at the age of 16, s ...

credited Sawyer as an important figure in helping Australia win the 2019 Women's Ashes. Sawyer's contract was later extended until the 2021 Women's Cricket World Cup. During his tenure as assistant coach, Australia won two

ICC Women's T20 World Cup The ICC Women's T20 World Cup (known as the ICC Women's World Twenty20 until 2019) is the biennial international championship for women's Twenty20 International cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cri ...

s and a

Women's Ashes The Women's Ashes is the perpetual trophy in women's international cricket series between England and Australia. The name derives from the historic precedent of the Ashes in male cricket and, until 2013, was similarly decided exclusively on the ...

series in England. In 2019, Sawyer was announced as the head coach of The Hundred women's team Birmingham Phoenix. The 2020 edition of The Hundred was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, and so Sawyer took up the role in 2021. In 2020, Sawyer became a full-time coach of the New South Wales Breakers. He continued with his part-time Australia coaching role, and as coach of the Sydney Sixers. In July 2021, Sawyer was appointed Australia women's first full-time pace bowling coach. As a result, he left his role at NSW Breakers. Initially, Sawyer also announced his resignation from Sydney Sixers, but later agreed to coach them for the 2021–22 Women's Big Bash League, as the schedule for the WBBL did not conflict with any Australia women's international matches. After the season, he was replaced by

Charlotte Edwards Charlotte Marie Edwards (born 17 December 1979) is an English former cricketer and current cricket coach and commentator. She played primarily as a right-handed batter. She appeared in 23 Test matches, 191 One Day Internationals and 95 Twenty ...

as Sydney Sixers head coach. In June 2022, Sawyer was appointed head coach of the

ahead of the

2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England bet ...

. In February 2023, he was named the head coach of

in the Women's Premier League.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sawyer, Ben Australian cricket coaches Living people 1970s births Sydney Sixers (WBBL) New South Wales Breakers Birmingham Phoenix Coaches of the New Zealand national cricket team